The Third Member
by 5h4zz4m
Summary: Everyone forgets about the weak link. ItaSaku. HidaSaku.
1. Chapter One: Present Time

**The Third Member**

_By RJ_

**Pairing**: Ita/Saku Hida/Saku

**Disclaimer**: Yada, yada, yada...

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**Chapter One**

Present Time

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Itachi listened carefully to Pain as he stood on the tongue of the doorway and gazed at the rain falling from the blackened sky as it flooded the streets of the rouge village below. Ever since all nine of the Tailed Beasts had been placed into their posession and the Great War had started, it seemed like even on sunny days it was cloudy. The last Uchiha couldn't even remember the last time he gazed upon the rays of the sun.

Behind him, Pain assumed the image of Itachi's back meant he wasn't listening. "Are you listening to me, Itachi?" He asked, turning his attention from the usually blue Kisame, to the ebony-haired criminal. He was leaning one arm against the doorway, his back turnd on his comrades, and seemed lost in his own world.

Itachi turned to look at the raven charms dangling next to him in the doorway, but the way he tilted his head made it seem like he was talking to Pain rather than the dangling wooden birds. "I heard you." He said almost inaudiably, eyes unfocused.

"Then you understand the situation that is placed upon your shoulders, and not ours?" Pain wasn't enjoying the attitude Itachi was giving him. This was crucial information that needed to be taken into careful consideration. He rarely confronted his members directly unless it was vital they see he was being 100% serious.

Itachi turned to face him and narrowed his onyx eyes. "She's just a girl."

"So am I." Konan said bitterly from the shadows of the room. She sat on an old armchair, legs crossed, watching her fellow members discuss their new problem.

Kisame scratched at his blue hair and chuckled nervously. "Not to be sexist or anything, but can such a Kunoichi really be a threat to us?"

Pain gave him an incredulous look. "She killed Kakuzu."

The blue-skinned man laughed and shrugged, but not in an amused fashion. He took a swig of the Sake bottle on the table and wiped his mouth with his wrist. "I guess that's a little bit of a problem." He mumbled to himself. He cast his attention onto Hidan, who had remained taciturn ever since Itachi and Kisame had arrived, and raised a brow. "Hidan, you saw her fighting Kakuzu for awhile, how tough is she?"

He didn't say anything, only glanced at him for a fleeting moment and then returned to staring at the floor, lost in whatever thoughts he was having. Perhaps revenge? He hadn't hated Kakuzu, in fact he was a little attached to him in a way, the loss must have been a little hard to wrap his mind around right away.

Pain looked back at Itachi, who was once again facing the sky watching the rain fall. "You understand, don't you?" He inquired quietly. "You're her main target." Of course Itachi knew this fact. They were all well aware of the probable, seething hate she had for Itachi. It wasn't a secret that the girl had an astounding admiration for his younger brother, it was a stronger version of "Puppy Love," as Kisame had once described it.

Sakura Haruno. The third member of Team Seven. The thought was ludacris, but at the same time, they should have seen it coming. After what they had brought about, she was bound to come after them eventually. Maybe that's why Kisame was so unnerved by it, because he knew it had been his chore to kill her those seven years ago while the others took care of the stronger units. Instead, he had graciously taken mercy on a little innocent girl and let her live. Seven years later she's their biggest threat, at least according to Pain. Both Kisame and Itachi were having doubts.

How old was she now? Nineteen? That means she witnessed them murder her friends when she was only twelve. What a terrible thing to have to see as a Genin, unexpirienced in the field of death. It was akin to throwing her into a pit of wild dogs, hungry and angry. It was also his problem now, even though at the time nobody had given her a second glance. The girl was always reguarded as Team Seven's weakest link, and she was never meant to be surrounded by such important shinobi, because in the end she was nothing but a worthless kunoichi with a few good skills, an average ninja at best.

When a bolt of lightning cracked through the air and earth in the distance, Itachi was suddenly jolted back into reality and concieved how bad the storm was getting. He and Kisame couldn't travel through this and come out clean on the other side. Pain must have figured this matter was going to pop up, because he spoke the simplest solution a moment later. "If you want, the three of you can spend the night here, but I want you out of the village in the morning." He and Konan exited the room quietly, leaving Hidan, Itachi, and Kisame alone in a pondering silence.

It was awhile before anyone spoke or made a noise, and it happened to be Hidan, even though he hadn't said a word the entre time. He laughed at his feet and grinned at his two companions, a very human emotion burning in his blue eyes. "Looks like we really fucked up, didn't we?" He asked rhetorically. He straightened himself up from the wall and glared at Kisame. "Couldn't kill a little girl, could you, you fucking idiot."

* * *

Itachi didn't sleep too great that night. In fact, around midnight the thunder was getting too loud for him to even keep his eyes closed and pretend that he was sleeping. He lay on his back on the futon in the living room that Pain let them sleep in, because he didn't want to give them seperate rooms to clean up after. He glanced over at the couch, where Kisame was snoring, and then at the arm chair, where Hidan was zoning out on the floor. However, as he looked more closely, Hidan's breathing was even and slow, and Itachi understood that he was just sleeping with his eyes open.

Thunder struck again, and Itachi rose from his futon slowly, making sure to be slient in order to let the other two keep sleeping. Not out of consideration, but because he didn't want them to bother him.

Not to long ago Pain had opted that the cloaks were causing too much trouble for all the members; making it impossible to not be instantaneously spotted by enemies, and catching on sharp edges when they ran, ripping the fabric. He instead decided individual wear was better, making whether or not the one in question having a particular ring the only way to determine if they were part of the organization. So, now deducting his cloak, Itachi wore normal shinobi slacks and his black sandals, a black, fitted T-shirt, his grey mesh undershirt, and the charm necklace resting on his collarbone. On his finger was his crimson ring, signaling his position in the organization, and he tied his long black hair higher up on his head rather than at the nape of his neck. One detail he had never altered was the position his Hita-Ate had on his body, and that would always be on his forehead. At the moment it was removed because he had been attempting to sleep.

Even though Itachi had never been in Pain's asylum physically, the rooms and hallways were genuinely familiar, because he had been there multiple times the way he had been in the Tailed Beast chamber. He could easily recollect the way to get to the room with the tongue balcony they had been in earlier that night when they had first been briefed by their leader about their new enemy. He enjoyed being in that room, it was wide and faced the moon, so when it was full, the light filtered through the cracks in the wall and the opening to the balcony. Nonetheless, it was still raining, like it often did in that particular area, but the lights from the modernized village still cascaded in, making the room look ethereal.

Thunder struck the horizon and casted a silver glow for a split second, revealing a figure with dull amber hair lounging on the sofa in the corner. Itachi could see his leader in the corner of his eye, but he didn't tun to face him. He wasn't fond of looking at Pain in the eyes, his bloodline didn't scare him, but it made him feel vulnerable.

They were both silent, until Pain rose andentwined a hand through his hair. "She's here for you." He said quietly, reguarding the doorway with his piercing eyes. "Konan and I won't interfere." His footsteps on the concrete floor echoed as he came closer, and Itachi still did not meet his gaze when it fell on him once more. Ever so quietly, Pain leaned closer and whispered something noislessly in his subbordinate's ear. Whatever he had said or instructed, it made shock crawl across Itachi's face. He finally turned to look Pain in the eye, but his superior had already left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Itachi wasn't entirely alone now. He turned back towards the doorway and waited, the rain was getting heavier and the lights from the village were starting to exstinguish. When the next beam of lightning struck the earth, she was there. Gracefully, she flipped herself up from underneath the tongue, as lean and flexible as a gymnast, and stood still on the tip, her black cloak dripping wet and heavy at her ankles. He couldn't see her face yet, because it was hidden in the darkness of the hood. Her footsteps against the stone were gentle as she came closer, out of the rain, and revealed her face.

He had expected something different, exspecially when Pain had informed them that she had been training underground, to avoid possibly being exposed to the world by spies before she was ready to go after the Akatsuki. Her introduction into the world as a class-A Assasain was news to them. Itachi had expected her to be pale and angry-looking. He had expected her to have the same emotional sleeve as the nine tails boy had, or his little brother, Sasuke, maybe even taken after the Copy-nin's aloof facade. Instead, she seemed more like a politer version of Konan. Quiet, but not stoic, more like she didn't make too much out of being where she was, but he knew better. She was exactly where she wanted to be.

She wasn't that bad looking either, he had to say. Her face had matured and no longer bore the childish structure she had when they had met seven years earlier. Her eye brows were pointed, and her eyes were sharp and pleasingly green, even her thin lips were in perfect proportion to her face. Her hair was pulled into a black bandana with the Konoha insignia stamped on the metal plate, but he could still tell it was bright pink because of the wispy petal locks at the nape of her neck.

He had to admit he was slightly curious as to what she was wearing underneath the cloak.

There was an agonizingly long stillness between the two of them while they merely stared at each other, mainly because Sakura had nothing to fear about making eye contact as long as his Sharingan were not activated. When she spoke, breaking the silence, her voice seemed unused, as if she had not mused aloud for a very long time. "They had expected me to go after Kisame or Hidan first." She broke eye contact for a fleeting moment and unbuttoned the brooch at the neck of her cloak. She rolled her shoulders to push it off and it piled up around her feet in a wet heap. Instead of the ridiculous pink uniform she wore as a child, she wore sandal boots, fitted shorts, and a fitted tank top, all of it black. On her lower arms she wore gray armor, and her gloves had metal plates on the back, also stamped with the Konoha insignia.

The most prominent feature to her attire was the inky-black Katana straped to her back.

"I'm not going after either of them first, however," she said quietly, pulling on the wrist of her left glove, and glaring at Itachi with venom, "because I'm impatient."

The Uchiha blinked, and when he reopened his eyes instinctively, they were blood red. The Sharingan. Sakura was no longer looking him in the eye either, now she focused on his chin.

"They will hear." Itachi informed her. "You're outnumbered."

"No." Her voice was fierce, and she stood up straight, her hands at her sides balled up into fists. "Lock the door."

Itachi assumed her order was supposed to be significant, because they both knew that even a Genin could kick down that door, it wasn't strongly built. But they also both knew that him locking that door meant he was commited to fighting her one-on-one, no outside help. Knowing that deep down he wanted to fight her alone and fairly, he obeyed, and without breaking his gaze from her focused green eyes, he bolted the door shut tightly.

Lighting struck.

The light exploded into the room for a nanosecond.

And then they were upon each other.

She moved like a bird, light and quick on her feet with extra chakra, but she struck like a cobra. Itachi was forced to admit, only to himself, that everytime she swung her sword (which curiously enough also had a black blade along with the sheath), he only barely managed to dodge or block it. He, however, wasn't so unexperienced either. Wherever she went, he went, and whatever she threw at him, he could effortlessly push her back onto the defensive just as quick as she had.

At some point he had leapt to the wall of the room where two katanas were mounted on display, and he only managed to retrieve one because at the same time Sakura had thrown a swarm of shurrikan at him, forcing him to settle with leaving the other behind. Instantly she went for the second sword, and threw it out the balcony. It spun down into the streets and was lost in sight. "Fair fight!" She snapped at him, bending her knees and holding her katana out with both hands on the blade.

He didn't have time to reply. She made a seal with her hands and two clones of herself appeared from the shadows behind him and he was suddenly engaged in a violent hand-to-hand fight between the two of them, while the real one leapt from wall to wall, gathering all the expensive, but useful weapons and tossed them out the window. Now, the only two weapons in the room were whatever kunai or shurikan the two had on them, and their single swords. As soon as she was sure they couldn't one up one another, he sliced the throat of one of her clones with a kunai and she dissapeared. The other clone put a little room between them and kicked her heal against the floor. With a snap, a sharp blade cut through the sole of her boot and she kicked at him when he was turning from the cloud of smoke where the last clone had ben eliminated. The speed of her kick and her proximity was too quick for him to dodge, and the blade of her foot was lodged into one of his love handles.

It was just a fleshwound, and he quickly grabbed the distraction and broke her neck with a nast crack. He took a moment to breathe and felt his side, pulling away a little blood on his fingertips. Thankfully the kick hadn't been close enough and the wound was too shallow to matter.

Both of them were at a distance now, back where they started. They were both underestimating each other at the same moment, and now they were both going to bring it up a notch. A big notch.

Itachi made the first move, much to her surprise, and was in front of her in less than a second, brandishing his sword and she blocked it only a moment before it could have split her head in two. With the handle in one hand, and the flat of the blade in her free palm, she stop the fall of his sword and grunted when she was forced to bend her knees to push him back. The toes of her boots slid on the smooth surface of the concrete, and Itachi's knee smashed into her stomach with a sickening sound.

She gasped, winded, and stumbled back. Before she could aknowledge the pain, she was forced to roll out of the way of the tip of his blade, which came down for her, whislting through the air it cut through. She jumped as soon as she was clear of him and kicked him in the shoulder, hearing something pop, and she realized she had dislocated his joint. When she was on the ground again, she spun a kick around for extra force and hit him in the rips, sending him back. He flew from the ferocity of her attack, and hit the wall behind him with his back.

With a window of opportunity, Sakura's hands clasped around her navel and she started to heal whatever damaged he had done to her internally. Later, when she would be given time to examine herself more properly, she would worry about whether or not she'd be able to have children in the future. The pain receeded slightly, but she couldn't afford to go all out and waste her precious chakra. At the moment she was the only one who had used any, unless Itachi was also using some to better his footwork.

With a grimace, she stopped letting the chakra flood her and got back on guard as Itachi lifted himself from the wall where he collided into. His eyes, although she did not see them, burned with fury. He didn't like being overpowered by someone who wasn't part of his own clan, and this girl was defiantly proving to be a threat. Her stood straight and snapped his shoulder back into place with a wet sound, and rolled it a little to get it working again.

Quickly, before she could predict his hand formations, he made the seals necessary to use fire, and, in less than a second, scorching flames expelled from his mouth, and all she could do was dodge. However, when she landed in front of the door, she realized that in the confined space of the room, the fire would eat her up.

Right before she decided to make her defensive move, something crashed through the door, shattering the hinges and falling for her.

By instinct only, two shields of blue exploded from Sakura's hands, one to curve the gyser of fire from her path, and another to stop the shredding sword from crashing into her. The fire dispersed quickly when it wasn't being effective, and the second it did so, Sakura released her barriers and kicked Kisame's sword into his face, where he quickly let it go and ducked to the side before the razor-sharp sides touched him. Behind him, Hidan stood in the hallway, watching the scene with nonstalgia in his cold eyes. Sakura took a second to lock her gaze with his, reminding him of how she killed his partner.

She'd get even with the Jashin eventually. But not now.

"Kisame! Don't interfere!" She heard Itachi order.

Sakura, not wasting her worry on the two in the hallway, turned her back on the doorway to face Itachi once more. Something didn't seem right to her, whether it was from the pain in her abdomen or the feeling that they all knew something that she didn't. Something she should know.

But at the moment, it didn't matter. This time, at their pause, she didn't let Itachi make the first move. She gathered up as much chakra in her feet that felt like a safe amount and flew at him, literally. The speed in which she was upon him made her barely touch the floor with the tips of her toes. Their weapons came at each other from crooked angles, and the force in which they contacted made them all but shatter, shaking violently in their hands. She didn't see where either of the swords flew off to, but she could see her hand grabbing onto the collar of Itachi's shirt, and she could feel the chakra burning in her fist. In a second, she would like to feel the bones in Itachi's face get crushed under the ferosity of her punch.

Instead, he caught her fist before she could gain enough momentum to make it effective, and he shoved her back. She bounded back in small leaps, crossing her arms with the armor facing him as he sent a kick at her face. She used the chakra in her feet to keep from moving back, and when his kick contacted with her blocking arms, she quickly grabbed his ankle, and with her inhumane strength, she threw him.

He landed on his feet. Unharmed.

It was then that Sakura made her biggest mistake in the fight. Without thinking, and overcome with her inability to think clearly at the moment, she looked into his eyes.

And then there was darkness.

* * *

"What is your name?"

Sakura blinked, unfazed, into an endless sunset. She didn't know where she was, but when she looked down at her hands they were clean, slender, and long. She didn't recall ever having hands this pretty. She always remembered them being worn out, scraped at the knuckles and sore at the joints. The same with her clothes, when she noticed. She was wearing a pink dress she had only worn when she was a girl, but, now that she thought of it, she couldn't remember why she had stopped wearing her favorite color in the first place.

Whoever was with her repeated his question.

"Sakura Haruno." She answered. She wanted to see who was asking her this question, but when she tried to turn, he forced her with strong hands to keep staring ahead. She didn't argue, because the endless horizon was breathtaking. She wondered why it seemed so familiar.

"Where do you live?"

She breathed in, the air tasted like honey. "Nowhere."

"Do you know of the Village of Konohagakure?"

She closed her eyes now, tilting her head back a little. Her abdomen ached a little, but she couldn't remember anything happening to it. "Yes," she whispered, "I was raised there."

"Do you have any intentions to return?"

Sakura's eyes reopened, and instead of gazing into an endless sky, she saw now the great gates of her home village. Seeing them filled her with no feelings, not hate or love. She reguarded them with indifference. "I never want to return to Konoha."

"Is there anyone waiting for you there?"

"No."

"Why did you leave?"

She blinked and was now gazing at a clearing in a forest, crimson blood spattered and soaking into the pure white snow that was caked and disheveled on the ground. "I wanted to become stronger and Konoha was sheltered. I wanted to become a great Kunoichi." Although the scene meant nothing to her, she had to wipe a tear or two away from her cheek.

"Sakura..."

"Yes?" She beathed, unable to take her eyes of of the bodies sprawlled across the clearing. She wanted to throw up, it was nothing but slaughter, she couldn't even make out the faces.

"Are you aware of the names Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Kakashi Hatake?"

Something inside her screamed for her to say yes. But why? She had no idea who those people were. She answered truthfully; "No I do not."

* * *

Pain stared down at the unconcious girl, whose black bandana had been removed and now her short pink hair was unkempt around her face. Itachi's hands, which were previously pressed to her temples, were now on the back of the couch, which he stood behind. Other than them, Konan, Hidan, and Kisame also stood behind Pain, watching her with reletive interest.

"I don't get why we don't just kill her," Hidan mused darkly, "she's our enemy isn't she?"

"Not anymore." Itachi told him, standing up straight.

"Is her memory erased?" Pain asked him.

"Yes, but not enough for her to forget her skills. She remembers how to do the things she's mastered, but she doesn't remember who taught them to her. She's just a rouge kunoichi now, and it'll be easy to have her as a member because she's been training underground and nobody outside of Konoha will recognize her."

"Why the fuck do we even need her?!" Hidan snapped, gesturing to her limp body with esasperated hands. "What? So she can almost beat the shit out of Itachi, and she's one of the few class-A Assasains overnight? Big deal! I'm fucking immortal!"

Kisame pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose while Hidan listed reasons why Sakura wasn't such a wise addition to their already thinning organization. They already had one PMSing member (Pain had to restrain Konan from ripping off a very important part of Hidan's body after he threw that one out into the open), her hair was sure to attract way too much attention to them, they happened to be the ones who maimed and murdered her best friends, if she ever remembers she'd end up killing them, etc, etc.

Nobody was listening to him.

When Itachi and Pain had been alone in the now trashed room, he had whispered one thing to him; "Do not kill her." At first, Itachi didn't know what he meant, until halfway through his fight with the nimble Kunoichi. She was quick, strong, and deadly. She had single-handedly taken out Kakuzu, with Hidan close by, she was the most skilled medic in all of the largest villages, and she was almost a stranger to the entire world. That was the requirement to joining Akatsuki, other than being dedicated to the destruction of the great nations, you had to be elite, and useful.

Itachi sorted out the other members in the organization, Deidara with his explosives, Sasori with his pupeteering, Kisame with his sword and water skills, Hidan and Kakuzu with their near-immortality, him with his bloodline, Pain with his influence, Konan with her stealth, Zetsu with _his_ stealth, and...well, Tobi didn't exactly have a useful skill. He was their black sheep. But soon, with Itachi's ability to mess with her mind, they planned to add Sakura to that list; Sakura, with her healing, her strength.

Her everything.

The third member of Team Seven was about to make her mark in history.

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**A/N:** I have a thing for Sakura being totally bad ass. The girl seriously needs to have some more screen time and fight time because her fights are always entertaining. ALSO, before you read on, keep in mind that this is a cracked-up fantasy of mine glorifying Sakura, and if you're a Sakura hater, please don't read cause I don't want your "Sakura's a bitch, she's not this powerful, blah blah blah" reviews cluttering my vision. I'm fully aware that Sakra isn't a powerful character in the real manga/anime. I don't care. This is just fanfiction. Anyways, here are a few things to keep in mind while reading this, because I've really tweaked the original story just for the hell of it. (This is the only Author's Note I'll be writing until the last chapter).

- Obviously all the Akatsuki members are still alive, and Tobi is just Tobi. He won't be Madara now or later, he's just Tobi. I like _Tobi_.

- You may consider Sakura a little OOC in some parts, but she won't be a mary-sue, I promise you.

- Really, I wasn't a fan of Itachi only pretending to be a bad guy. I defiantly prefered him as one.

Enjoy. **Review**. (_Please_?)


	2. Chapter Two: Seven Years Prior

**The Third Member**

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**Chapter Two**

Seven Years Prior

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Izumo and Kotetsu were normally spiritless on days like this, when most Shinobi and Kunoichi had days off and were busy around their village rather than neighboring ones. They would lounge in their watch post at the gates and discuss pointless things that didn't matter, and greet the occasional Genin squad returning from their sub-par mission.

Today was not their day to be bored. Not in the least. It was late January, and the snow storms had all passed for the season, leaving a white, calm earth in it's wake. There was only a babyish wind, but the air was chill and freezing. On top of the guard tower near the gates, the two of them were alert, sipping scalding coffee, of course, but still aware of the forest before them. The sky was starting to leak from blue to black, with majestic colors liquifying around the sunset. Kotetsu clicked his tongue impatiently, not elated with the job Tsuande had placed upon their shoulders.

It had been hours since she had sent out an ANBU retrieval squad to tack down Team Seven before it was too late, and seing as how it was the day after an ice storm, they would have been slowed down trying to catch up with them. The branches were coated with slippery ice and the ground was buried under five feet of snow. The village didn't bother clearing the forest roads during the winter, so all the snow from december and the earlier parts of the month was piling up.

Izumo sneezed, spilling some of his coffee down the front of his vest. "Shit..." he whispered, using his scarf and gloved hands to mop up the mess. Then, as if he had just been stung by a bee, Kotetsu lept up to the highest part of the tower. Izumo paused his actions, hoping for good news, or a false alarm.

"I see them!" Kotetsu shouted down, trying to keep balance on the slippery roof. "All three of the squad and..." his expression suddenly became very grim, "and only one body."

"One?!" Izumo repeated, shocked. "Who is it?"

"I can't tell, but go get Tsunade!" Kotetsu jumped down from the tower and dissapeared into the depths of the forest while Izumo abandoned his mug and tore across the rooftops to the Hokage Tower.

The ANBU weren't too far away, so Kotetsu reached them in less than one minute. He slipped and skidded on every branch he stepped on, and when he got them into view more closely, he could see the body the captain was carrying wedding-style carefully. The second he saw the pink, Kotetsu became very pessimistic and assumed the worse; that Sakura Haruno was dead and the other bodies were unattainable.

"Is she..."

"She's still alive," the captain assured, tightening his grip around the girl as they balenced on a slightly thinner branch. "We need to get her to a medic as soon as possible, she hasn't got much time." Blood from the newly inaugarated Kunoichi was soaking the captain's clothes, as well as dripping down into the snow below them.

Kotetsu raised a brow, "there isn't one with you?"

"This team was put together too quickly to remember, but we need to hurry." The captain sped off, leaving Kotetsu behind as his team flew on with him.

Tsuande was outside her tower when they got there, worry spread all over her usually strong face. It had been obvious she was worried about Team Seven more than any of the Genin teams, but only because of it's members. The Kyuubi boy, Naruto, was too much of an asset to the village to allow to die, and Sasuke and Kakashi were already in the bingo books. Loosing them all to Akatsuki in one day would be terrible for the village's reputation. When the ANBU landed and she saw only Sakura draped in the captain's arms she felt her heart sag.

"Is she the only survivor?" She inquired, placing her hand over her heart.

"I'm afraid so," He said. "She's barely alive, Tsuande."

"Bring her inside," The Hokage instructed, breathless. Were the Akatsuki members really this strong that they could take out three powerful ninjas at once? They would have to take future percausions now that these events have passed.

The captain quickly brought the fading child into Tsunade's personal infirmary, laying her down on the operating table gently before leaving her to her work. Before he could leave, Sakura managed to gain conciousness for a moment to ask one thing; "is everyone okay?" Her voice was enervated and hoarse, and dried blood flaked away around her anemic lips. The captain paused in the doorway and gave her a grave look through his mask.

"Nobody is okay, Sakura Haruno. Not today." He left her then, and heard her sobs echo in the hall.

* * *

"Three of her ribs are fractured here, here, and here, and she had severe internal bleeding I stopped a few moments ago. And here..." Tsunade turned Sakura over gently and pointed out her back to Shizune, who gasped at the shredded flesh. All the way down her spin was mangled, as if someone had taken a chainsaw to it. "We think Kisame Hoshigake did this to her."

"Most likely," Shizune said dolefully. "This poor girl shouldn't have been put into their squad."

"No, she shouldn't have." Tsunade agreed. "But I can save her life, although I can't promise her she can get back to training anytime soon."

"Why do you think they didn't kill her? I mean they obviously didn't give her mercy entirely but they left her alive." Shizune observed as Tsunade kept examining the body of the twelve-year-old girl, looking for more immediate injuries that needed attention.

Tsunade sighed when she felt the three broken fingers on Sakura's left hand. "She wasn't one of their priorities, they probably just went for the ones in the bingo book and then beat the crap out of her when they didn't have anything left to do." She grimaced at her next thought, "It's a wonder they didn't rape her."

* * *

Twenty-four hours after Sakura was returned to the village solely, she was in intensive care healing naturally after Tsunade mended her as best as chakra could. By some miracle, her spine wasn't destroyed under the slash the Samehada had inflicted upon her, and her ribs were on their way to being just as healthy as they had been previously.

She had lots of visitors while she was comatose, from her old friend Ino, who had been terrified that Sakura might die without knowing that she still wanted to be friends with her, to the guilty Iruka, who thought it was his fault she was in this position because she had placed in Team Seven by his will. However, when she reopened her eyes, it wasn't anyone she was familiar with standing by her bedside.

Her whole body ached as she angled her head to look at him, eyes heavy-lidded and bruised, and skin pallid against the dark marks on her neck and face. "Who are you?" She asked to the strange man. He looked slightly older than Kakashi was, and had dark brown hair and friendly eyes.

"My name is Yamato," he said, introducing himself with a slight, almost nonexistant bow. "I was the captain of the ANBU team who found you separated from your team."

Sakura just stared, and then seemed to realize she had the ability to speak. "Can I just say you saved my life, then?" She asked morbidly. Yamato frowned, but nodded. She sighed and stared at the achromatic cieling. "Good, because I don't really feel like thanking every person who had a part in it."

"It's alright to feel bitter, Sakura, nobody will blame you."

She rose her pink brows and looked at him as if he'd said something offensive. "Why do you think I'm bitter about all of this?"

His frown deepened with her unsociable attitude. "Because your friends are dead?"

She snorted, and then coughed when she rattled something in her lungs. "Please, that's not even half of it."

"Why are you bitter, then?"

She gnashed her teeth together feebly and felt like screaming. She was filled with so much anger that she wanted to just let it out, but she didn't have the strength to do anything but glare at nothing in particular. "Because, whether anyone wants to aknowledge it or not, I was the only level headed member on my team, and I was also the only one uninformed that Akatsuki was after all three of my team members." She wanted to crush the skull of anyone who so much as gave her the slightest amount of trouble for blaming everything on everyone. "Am I so uselss that you fucks have to keep valuable information like that from me that I could use to talk reason into the three of them?!" She said "you" because she wasn't really talking to Yamato at this point, she was thinking of Tsunade, and her informants. She was thinking of the village elders and the people who requested Team Seven carry out their mission. She was thinking of everyone who wasn't thinking like her, who hadn't used common sense.

There was a hand on her shoulder and she snapped her eyes up at Yamato, who was smiling sadly down at her. "Sakura," he said, "Death is always going to surround you if you travel down the road of a Kunoichi." He pulled away from her and started to leave the room. "You can't do anything about it now."

Anything? She couldn't do anything...they always said that, he just happened to say it in a more politer fashion. Sakura Haruno, the girl who couldn't do anything.

It was then she was filled with unsurpassable fury. The last few years repeated inside her mind in the next few seconds, and she was overwhelmed with how much she wanted to be healthy, so she could start doing something about it. She tried to remember what Medical Ninjas did when she saw them heal in the hospitals; the visible blue chakra that instantaneously started to repair cells that would naturally take a longer time to heal. How did they do it? Could she do it to herself?

She raised her hands and stared at the creases and lines on the skin of her palm. Her three broken fingers were still a little crooked and sore, but maybe that wouldn't be a bad spot to start, something simple and right in front of her. She let her perfect hand fall back to the bed, but she continued to stare at the other. She used the knowledge of Kakashi's Chakra training and started to transmit all of her power into her cripled arm, and, with her talent at controlling chakra so well, it didn't take long for her hand to start glowing a luminous blue. The feeling was warm, and the more she pushed, the easier it was to bend her fingers and eventually ball them into a tight fist.

Her fingers were healed, so what else should she get to work on? She knew her spine was a little messed up, so she forced her chakra from her hand to her back, and this time it took longer to get a reaction because it was a wider surface area. About and hour passed before she was able to sit up and heal the tenderness of her ribs, which had already been fixed by Tsunade.

She felt perfect now, only her soul was pained. She had just taught herself medical ninjutsu in the span of about two hours and she didn't feel any different, maybe because most of the work had already been done for her. Now what was she supposed to do? It was almost midnight and she wouldn't feel very triumphant barging into Tsuande's bedroom demanding an apology for being so unorganized you didn't know a fraction of a terrorist group was going to hunt down a Genin team and make it a public announcement.

Then she knew what she wanted to do; She wanted to visit the bodies of her friends down in the morgue. She was already in the hospital, wasn't she? She at least deserved to say good-bye.

Quietly, so none of the on-duty nurses or medics would notice her, she snuck through the hospital and to the basement, where she used a pair of keys she found on a desk to unlock the morgue doors. It was dark inside, cold, and smelled like chemicals. Most of the bodies were zipped up in the black bags already, but she spotted her teammates quickly, because they were not yet sewn back together after their autopsy's. When she saw their open, cleansed chests, she felt vomit accumulating in her throat.

Before she made a mess, she rushed to a trash bin in the corner and threw up noisily, tasting the bitter acid on her tongue. It went quickly, and she hurridly wiped her mouth and spit out the taste. She hated throwing up, but seeing the exposed ribcages of her friends was too much to handle without warning.

Carefully, Sakura stood and took another chance, hesitantly looking upon their bodies once more. She found it easier to gaze at the gore after already seeing it once, but the terrible sight would haunt her forever after this.

It was the first time she had ever seen Kakashi's face clearly, and she didn't even enjoy that. His scar from when his eye was implanted had been re-torn, and when she pulled back his lids, she saw that the sharingan had been taken out violently, tearing blood vessels and flesh. Probably by their attackers, because the medical research center would only need one of Sasuke's, because his were naturally his.

Although she knew she would regret it, she didn't see anything wrong with Kakashi's upper body that could possibly have caused his death, so she relctantly lifted the sheet to see his lower body. Like she had predicted, she regreted it instantly. Her hand came up to cover her mouth in shock, but she didn't consider throwing up, probably because she had already done it. Tears welled up in her eyes and she dropped the sheet and stepped back, debating whether or not she should see Sasuke and Naruto's bodies or just run.

She decided against the latter. Sasuke's infamous scowl was no longer present because, well, he was dead. Now that she saw what he would normally look like if he weren't so angry all the time, she could comprehend that he looked much more attractive when he seemed at peace than she originally thought. His throat had been slased several times, and she could barely see the spinal cord through the maimed flesh. Every part of his body seemed dismembered, his arms were mangled, as well as his legs, and even his nose was smashed up into his head. It was a little grotesque.

And Naruto...The sight of him hurt her the most. Whoever had fought him went wild, breaking him down and crushing his face into oblivion. She couldn't even recognize him anymore, the damage was so intense. His skin was scared entirely from the overuse of leaking chakra, and his left arm was gone. Seeing him in the condition he was in made her grief break down then, completely overwhelmed with the sight of their torture. It probably would have made her feel better to be lying there with them, dead, and cold, and mutilated.

Sakura collapsed on the cold floor and started to shake. "Oh God..." she whispered, wiping away tears and curling into a ball. "Oh God, oh God, oh God." It wasn't long until she was loosing it, hugging herself and lementing, sobbing uncontrollably. All of this could have been avoided so simply. She could still be arguing with Naruto about going out on a date, she could still be attemtpting to flirt with a morbid Sasuke. She could even still be yelling at Kakashi for being late.

Christ, he had actually been on time that morning when they left for their mission...Tsuande probably didn't send the ANBU squad out too long after that. If only he had kept his tradition, maybe they would have caught up quicker, warned them quicker.

Why did things have to end up like this?

She couldn't bear the anger building up inside of her anymore, on her knees, she started to pound the hard floor with her aching fists, screaming profanities and giving up trying to stop the tears. She deserved to fucking cry after all of this. She was the only one in the God damn village who deserved to cry.

Her hand started to hurt after the first few punches, so she decided to do one more, and while she pulled back her fist, she accumulated chakra into it to ease the oncoming pain. With a shriek of anger, she crushed the floor, and a good chunk of the tile fractured off beneath her knuckles, sliding across the surface and knocking over a stool. For a moment, her anger subsided as she stared in disbelief at the minimal damage she had caused with a tiny punch. What had made that that one so much different than her last four?

She didn't have time to think about it as the morgue doors opened and light spilled through from the outside hallway. Someone had heard her, and she wasn't in the mood to get scolded for trespassing. She ran for the nearest exit and then escaped from the hospital by crawling out of a low window that led to the outside garden. She ran for a short while, suddenly taking notice that she wasn't dressed in the normal hospital gown, but instead in the grey sweats and red T-shirt she had had at her appartment. Had someone brought them to her while she was out?

When she stopped running, she was far from the village and in one of the training grounds. She had never been to that particular one, and she took a wild guess and figured that nobody was around.

How had she managed to punch a hole in the ceramic floor of the morgue? She knew she could pack a punch, but she never did anything like that! Was it because she had gathered chakra in her hand?

Looking down at it now she saw that the knuckles were bruised and throbbing. Experimentally, she forced and pushed every ounce of chakra she had into her fist, and it almost hummed with pressure as the familiar blue glow reappeared. Then she picked a spot on the ground she thought was hard, not soft with soil. She hesitated, but then slammed her fist into the earth and felt like her arm was about to tear from her shoulder. The ground below her gave way and she watched in awe at the destruction she presented, uplifting boulders and disheveling the earth.

The effect was strangely satisfying, but not on some field. If she could see the same path of destruction shred the bodies of those who took away everything from her, she felt like she might be able to toss aside the bitterness she felt now and gain back some feeling of joy, however dark and lonely it may be. She still had important people in her life, and she was young enough to invite some more in, but leaving Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi without revenge seemed unfair. It made her feel weak.

At the moment, seeing the effect of her punch before her, the last thing she wanted to feel ever again was weakness.

* * *


	3. Chapter Three: Present Time

**The Third Member**

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**Chapter Three**

Present Time

* * *

Sakura arouse with a jolt, sitting up so quickly her back cracked and sent a sudden burst of pain down her spine. She was shocked at the intensity of it, but the thought slipped her mind quickly. She was in an unfamiliar place, and her eyes were difficult to focus, Her skin tingled and every soft sound she heard, like her breathing, was music to her ears. She could smell a mix of aromas in the atmosphere, and when she opened her mouth, the air around her tasted sticky and humid. The phenomena she was experiencing was the aftermath of Itachi's Mangekyo, which had erased almost every memory of breathing, every sense in her body restarting, so for the next few moments, everything would either be like heaven, or be like hell. Her body was rebooting.

She clutched her heart and tried to find a word for how magnificent breathing felt. She knew she had done it before, but now it was unfamiliar, as if she had risen from the dead. The sensation was so sudden she started to cough, and the rattling in her chest was so painful she felt like her lungs were going to burst.

"Oh..." she gasped, going ridgid and waiting for the pain to subside. She was already getting used to breathing, the oxygen flowing into her nostrils wasn't really cold, but it felt like it to her. It felt like she was taking her first icy sniff of winter, the kind that freezes your brain for a moment.

Squinting from the light that was overflowing the room, Sakura saw she was in a small chamber, with only a bed and a lamp on a small shelf. There wasn't even enough room for a dresser. The window next to her bed was clean, and the sky outide was light grey and cloudy. Even a sunless day was impairing her vision and giving her a migrane. Unable to stand the blinding light, she threw herself down onto her shabby pillow and buried her face into the musky fabric.

To her left, as she groaned in discomfort, the metal hinges of the door scraped against the rusty frame as someone unlocked and opened it. The gentle squeak was like nails on a chalkboard and she threw her hands over her ears to muffle the sound.

"Are you awake?" The man that spoke to her had a familiar voice, but she didn't bother to think on it.

"Are you going to kill me?" She moaned, raising her hands from her ears and turning over, squinting into the bright light at whoever was gracing her with their company. He was awfully tall, with turqouise skin and azure hair. His face resembled that of a shark, especially with his sharp teeth and beady eyes. But he sounded human enough.

"Not quite," he assured her, with a not-so-genuine smile. When he noticed tears welling in her eyes, he rose a brow and became nervous. "Are you crying?"

"No." She breathed, "my eyes are watering. What did you do yo me? Did you drug me up?"

"Oh." Kisame's reply was relieved and sounded like he should have suspected this. "Forgive me." It only took him one move from the doorway to reach over her and pull a black curtain down over the window, shrouding the room in complete darkness. "Open your eyes now, is that better?"

Sakura opened her eyes as wide as they could and, since there was no light, felt no pain. She sighed in relief, and crawled out of her bed. "So, what is going on with me?"

"Well, I'm not really allowed to brief you until you talk to my boss," Kisame told her, "but I can tell you that this sensitivity you're having will go away soon."

"That's good." Then she scowled. "Do I know you?"

For a fleeting moment, Kisame was scared that she still had her memories, and Itachi had screwed something up. But the fear subsided as quickly as it had come when he remembered Itachi telling him that things would seem familiar to her, but the real, vivid memories were lost forever. "No, but I need to take you to the main chmber of this place, so your eyes might sting because it's really bright in there, well, at least for you." He ajusted his eyes to the dark and saw her hands hovering over her ears tightly. "What's wrong with you?"

She groaned and fell to her knees. "Could you please talk a little more quietly."

"Oh," Kisame repeated, hitting his forehead with his palm, "Sorry."

Together they exited the tiny room and went out into the hallway, where she could easily see in the dim light. To her, it seemed much more brighter than to him, but it wasn't enough to sting her eyes. As they walked, with Sakura lagging behind a little because she didn't know who this man was and didn't want to get attacked by surprise or something, she brought up a simple question. "Who are you?"

"Kisame Hoshigake." He said naturally. "And you?"

She was about to answer it instinctively, but she hesitated. For a split second she had actually forgotten her own name. "I'm Sakura." She mumbled.

He gave her an impertinent look. "No last name?'

"Do I _know_ you?" She asked again, irritated. Who did this wierdo think he was, getting all friendly with her?

"Fair enough," he sighed, and opened a large wooden door with one hand. The agonizingly familiar light stung her eyes like razor blades, but it was less severe now that she had already expirienced it once. Quickly, she broughts her hands to cover her face, and moaned in pain. The sudden blitz of sounds were pounding in her ears, she heard the rain falling and thunder striking the earth in the distance, but she hadn't heard any of this before in the smaller room. Had it been sound proof? Sakura also heard others whispering, but in all the noise she couldn't make out indivudual voices. Some sounded electonic, while others sounded far away, and some too close. She was going to loose her mind if this didn't go away soon.

Then, she felt hands upon her hands, lowering them from her face. She struggled against whomever it was, but she lost quickly in her weakened state. Unable to bear the light, she kept her eyes shut, but the feeling of skin-on-skin was pleasant.

"You have to endure," her restrainer, a man, had a very monotone and unfriendly voice. "If you keep avoiding it you won't get your normal senses back."

She knew he was right. Once again she heard the familiar tone in his voice as she had in the blue man's, but nothing came to mind other than that. She took in a deep, sensitive breath and felt hundreds of smells flood her sinuses. Reluctantly, she started to expose her eyes, and she struggled to keep them open. Whoever was holding her hands continued to hold them tightly while she slowly adjusted her vision to the light and let her pupils constrict. Once she was used to the light and she could blink adequately without feeling pain, she looked into the eyes of the male before her.

He was much taller than her, maybe even an entire twelve inches, with long swarthy hair that was pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head. His bangs crowded his face, and she could see dark obsidian eyes behind the strands of hair. he didn't look too old, although the marks beneath his eyes told her otherwise, but she suspected he was at least five or six years older than herself.

His expression was like his voice, flat and stoic.

"Can you see now?"

"Pretty much," she told him, dropping her hands to her sides as he pulled away. She began to inspect the other individuals in the room; A very alluring woman with navy-blue hair and a flower made of paper behind her ear, a towering man with several dark piercings and dark amber hair, her blue-skinned guide from a few moments earlier, and a scrawny, hard-faced male with slicked back white hair and blue eyes. These were the only ones who were physically there in the room with her, including the dark-haired one besides her. The others were merely dark shadows, like static on a TV. There were four of the dark shadows, making nine in total.

"Ah, she's kinda cute." On of the faceless ones commented, and Sakura wasn't sure if he was talking about her or the blue-haired girl. His shdow shifted it's weight onto his left leg and crossed his arms. "Too bad Sasori wasn't dead so she could be my partner."

"Deidara, be quiet." The amber-haired man said softly, but his voice was low, and demanding. The way he stood made him look almost a little kingly amongst the others, so she just assumed he was their ring leader.

"Um..." she knew she wasn't exactly unwelcome here, except maybe for the white-haired boy, who was looking at her with very unfriendly eyes. However, she had no clue as to who these people were, and she couldn't remember how she had gotten there. And as for the partner comment the Deidara one had made, it was starting to make her a little skeptical.

"I am Pain," the amber-haired one told her, taking a step forward, but not coming too close. "This," he gestured towards the man beside her, "is Itachi." He started to point out all the other people in the room and introduced them. "Konan, Kisame, Hidan, Tobi, Sasori, Zetsu, and Deidara." When he said Deidara's name, the shadow raised it's hand and seemed to make some sort of waving gesture towards her.

Sakura gave him an addled glace. "...And?"

"Itachi found you a few days ago outside the village of Konoha." He paused and gave her an analytical look. "Are you familiar with that village?"

Sakura tried to rake through her mind for anything sounding so familiar. It was a name she heard before, but she wasn't "familiar" with it. "No, I don't think...Is this the village?" She gazed out the balcony behind him and out at the city below. It wasn't very "village" like.

"No," Pain answered quickly, almost offended, "this is my village, Konoha is far away, but Itachi and Kisame brought you here." If only she knew he was lying through his teeth.

"We found you," Itachi chimed in quietly besides her, "with your memory erased and serious injuries."

Sakura looked at him, confused, and then lookd over her visible body. She felt fine, and she looked fine, no scars in sight exceot for her knuckles, which were scarred on both hands as if she had punched a rock over and over again for about an hour and a half. "I don't feel injured."

"We had medical ninjas heal you," Kisame said quickly. "You should see your back."

Sakura didn't feel anything in her back, either, but when she spotted a mirror in the room she twisted around to see what they were talking about and gasped. She wasn't wearing her black tank top, only her grey sorts bra, so she could see instantly that which they were talking about. From her shoulders down to the small of her back was a narrow, but distinguishable scar. It was easy to see the skin had once been all but torn open, the flesh was tight and wrinkled along the edges of the scar, but when she rolled her shoulders, it moved like the skin had never been touched. Most people would find the sight a little gross, but Sakura thought it looked fascinating. As she stared in awe at the disform of her body, a new question acented. So these strangers had nursed her back to health, after finding her outside of a village called Konoha. However...

Sakura crushed her palm to her forehead, trying to remember. She wasn't trying to remember anything in particular, she just wanted to remember something. Her mother's name? Her father's? Where was she from, and why had she been attacked?

The others watched her as she pulled her hair and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember her life. All she could dig up was her name. She didn't even know how old she was or what her date of birth was. She could remember the entire structure of the human heart off the top of her head though, but she couldn't think of any interaction with anyone other than the men (and woman) who were standing before her.

Desperately, she looked up at Itachi and tried to find the answer in his eyes. "I can't..." She felt like crying, but she knew she wouldn't. "I can't remember anything."

"When we found you," Itachi explained to her, "your mind had been tampered with. I used my bloodline to try and see if I could do anything, but none of your memories remain."

Sakura stared at him, with no words coming to mind. Fircely and enraged, she grab him by the collar and jabbed gently in six unique sections of his chest. He remained stationary, staring at her with narrowed eyes. "I know the loaction of every Chakra Pressure Point in your circulatory system and you think my memory is gone completely? Go back in and try again!" She released him, and was suddenly infuriated at every little thing. If a spider decided right then and there to crawl across her foot, she'd pound it into oblivion just because the legs felt funny.

She snapped her attention on Pain again, who was looking rather bored. "That kid mentioned something about me being his partner-" she pointed at Deidara's shadow "-What the fuck does that mean?!"

"You don't have to get do angry." Deidara said in an offended voice. Sakura merely aknowledged him with a glare.

"We are an Organization called Akatsuki," Pain explained to her, while the four shadows dissapeared, fullfilling their curiosity, "we aren't well liked, but I'm sure you couldnt have fallen into better hands after your incident."

"What does that mean?" She breathed, entirely exasperated.

"Right now there is a massive war between almost every great nation of shinobi, and we were the catalyst for that conflict. The great nation's powers over the world was becoming too great and unbalanced, so we decided to tear their foundation down." He gestured outside his balcony towards the village below. "My village is the only one that remains untouched by war."

"So..." She looked at the last remaining in the room. "You all, plus the other four are all that makes up your little gang?"

"We hope to include you into our little gang as well," Pain told her matter-of-factly.

Her eyebrows went as high as they could go. "Me? You don't even know me."

"Itachi knows you." Kisame chimed in. Sakura glanced at the dark-haired man and found him unreasonably interesting.

"I was inside your mind," he said, "You have remarkable talent in medical ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and expirience in battle. We usually seek out unique shinobi such as yourself, but we haven't heard of you until now."

She frowned. "I don't see how I would fit into your warmongering."

"Right now we're not starting anymore wars." Pains said flatly. "We're attacking Konoha's influence, and seeing as how Konoha probably put you into the position you are in now, we figured you might want to get a little revenge."

There was a long, thoughtful pause where Sakura met the eyes of everyone in the room. Konan's were like Pain and Itachi's, reserved and unrewarding. There didn't seem to be any answer in her eyes as to what she should do. Join with an obviously powerful organization without her memories to give her a position in the world, or politely thank them for their help and be on her way? Who knows what they would do if she refused. Maybe she's seen too much?

Kisame's expression wasn't much help either, he seemed drawn between whether or not he even wanted her around, but Hidan...He seemed like he would be perfectly content with her just dropping dead where she was.

Abruptly, after they stared at each other for less than a nanosecond, he shoved himself off from the wall in which he was leaning on and grabbed his sythe, shouldering it and making towards the door. Pain gave him a bland look, but with his eyes he was telling him something different. "Where are you going?" He asked.

Hidan rolled his eyes and turned towards him. "I don't need to wait around for her fucking answer, do I look like her babysitter?"

"She'll be your partner." Pain reminded him. Hidan scoffed, looking at Sakura with his cold blue eyes.

"I can't work with women," he said grimly, walking out of the room, "I can't handle their whining."

Sakura watched him go with reletively longing eyes. He was the only one who actually seemed to cry for her to leave them, the only other oppinion besides the one the others were pushing her towards. As the door slammed violently behind him, Sakura put her thumb and forefinger to her chin, lost in thought. When she realized everyone was staring at her again, she merely smiled spologetically. "I'm going to need some time to think about it."

Granted her request, Kisame led her through the assylum once more to the tiny room she had been sleeping in previously. When the two of them were far enough away, Itachi turned to Pain.

"She seems close to convincing." Konan said.

"A memory is a delicate thing to loose. She'll want revenge later if not now." Itachi stated.

* * *

Sakura was in her quarters for a long time, laying on her mishapen back and staring at her chalky cieling while she hummed a slow, familiar, but releltively original tune. She kept weighing an option against the other; Join this group and become one of the Akatsuki, or refuse. She had already decided what to do if she refused, she wouldn't even inform them. The room she was in had a window, so she planned on running away if she settled on denying their offer. She didn't want to take the chance if they were hostile to her if she didn't go along with them.

Curiously, Sakura raised one of her hands from behind her head and gazed at the palm. Three of the fingers were significantly crooked compared to her other, straighter fingers, but she wasn't paying attention to them. She was actually looking at the creases on her skin. Vividly she could determine her age by them, but it was still beyond her why she could remember this useless talent, but nothing important.

She was nineteen. So at least she wasn't twenty yet, maybe this just wasn't her year of luck. With a sigh, she let her hands fall across her stomach, and with the hand behind her neck she nudged the edge of her scar gently with the tip of her middle finger. It had an interesting feel, but she kind of wished she could have felt it when her senses had been through the roof.

There was a knock on their door and she opened it to see Itachi standing there, tall and plain-faced.

"Hi...?" She said slowly.

"Hello." He greeted, stepping past her without her permission. She didn't really care though, it wasn't her room. "I've come to see if you've come to a decision. And Pain wanted to let you know," his dark eyes met hers and he seemed very indifferent, "that if you want to deny us, you'e welcome to."

Sakura gave him a quizical look, placing her hands on her hips. "How do you know I'm not going to go to Konoha or something and give them detailed descriptions of your faces?"

Itachi smirked slightly, letting her see his amusement. "Let's face it, you're not going to Konoha."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because deep down inside you know they're your enemies." He said, placing a hand on her bed frame. "Eventually you'll want revenge on them for what they did to you." Gently, he tapped his finger against his temple. "That's why we don't mind if you refuse right away."

He turned, walking out of the room to leave her alone again, but she took a step and almost grabbed his arm to pull him back. But she didn't. "Wait!" She said quickly, but quietly. He looked at her from over his shoulder and she shifted her weight. "Will you go back in and try and make it all right?" She was referring to her mind, because her hand drifted to the back of her head and smoothed down the messy pink hair.

"Later." He told her, and left.

* * *

Hidan only stared out the window darkly as Kisame informed him of his new partner. "She needs to go on a test mission," he explained. "You need to guide her, so be civil."

"Yeah, yeah," Hidan sighed, he remembered his test mission with Kakuzu. It was the only time that he had actually been nice to him, although he wasn't so friendly returning the favor. After that mission, the two of them never spoke a polite word to one another for the next three years that they would work together. Until that little pink-haired bitch killed Kakuzu by herself.

Hidan was still in awe at the skills she posessed.

"When do I have to get to know the cunt?" He asked, placing his hands on the window sill and straring down at a restauraunt that was particularly busy.

"Now would be good. She's really unsure of her decision, and Pain wants you two to leave as soon as possible."

"Whatever." Leaving his sythe, Hidan pushed past Kisame and wandered down to the main chamber of Pain's place and pushed open the door with one hand clentched into a fist near his side. Instead of seeing everyone there, pampering her, he only saw his leader and his new partner standing on the tip of the tongue balcony, discussing something in low voices. When he cleared his throat, only Sakura looked up, her curious expression suddenly going cold. She must have known that she was going to be paired up with him, now that Pain had the chance to explain the set up of Akatsuki, but she defiantly didn't look too happy about it.

"I've already briefed her on your mission," Pain said, without looking at him, and keeping his eyes on Sakura, who stood an entire foot lower than him. "You two are going to Mist to get the bounty off of a boy named Haku."

Hidan scoffed. "We've been after that brat for years."

"Yes, and now you and her are going after him again." Pain said, irritated at Hidan's inability to follow orders when they were given. When he didn't recieve a reply from the Jashinist, he assumed it meant he was tired of being difficult. Leaving them to their mission, Pain exited the chamber and the two of them were abandoned in an uneasy silence.

Desperate to start a conversation, Sakura smiled sheepishly and held out her hand. "I'm Sakura." She said nervously.

Hidan stared at her, baffled, then narrowed his eyes. "I'm Hidan." His hand was freezing when he reluctantly shook hers.

* * *


	4. Chapter Four: Eight Years Prior

**

* * *

**

The Third Member

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Eight Years Prior

* * *

Sakura sat in silence on her bench outside of the Hokage's office, staring at her knees and clasping her hands together in her lap. Her feet dangled above the floor and she let them sway back and forth, occasionally touching the concrete with her toes. Inside the room behind her she could hear muffled voices. Muffled voices discussing a matter at hand that involved her.

Across the room she was facing two of the most developed Genin in the village; Uzumaki Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha. Both of them her teammates, both of them still Genin because of her. Naruto didn't seem so distressed because of it, but she knew Sasuke was very aggitated becaise of it. At the moment, Naruto was very antsy, hoping for an answer to their predicament sooner rather than later, but Sasuke's head was reclined against the wall behind him, eyes closed, and most likely listening to the conversation inside.

"Don't worry, Sakura," Naruto said, "I'm sure you can still come with us on the mission."

She gave him a weary smile. "It's okay, Naruto," she said sadly, but trying to sound indifferent. "This is an A-ranked mission, and I can barely pull off C-ranks. If I can't go I'll just get substituted onto another squad until you guys get back so I can catch up on training."

Her dissapointed, but opptomistic attitude wasn't cheering Naruto up, who wanted very much for his female infatuation to accompany them on their journey to the Village hidden in the Mist. Sasuke, however, tilted his head and gave her an impressed look.

"That's very smart thinking." He said quietly. His compliment made her blush, but then he cancled out the positive remark with a more negative one. "If you're going to stay on this team you need to stop asking me out on dates and start taking your training more seriously."

Instead of blushing in affection, Sakura blushed even deeper in embaressment. Naruto came to her rescue and started to accuse him of being too insensitive about a girl's feelings. But before he could get too carried away with himself, Sakura interupted him. "It's okay, Naruto, he's right." Her green eyes met Sasuke's dark ones for a moment, and he seemed to aknowledge the fact that she was accepting the inevitable truth. Moments like these when he actually interracted with Sakura were rare, even when no words were spoken. In some cases it was his way of trying to help his teammates, despite the differences in strength that they had. She figured he wanted to see her succeed if they were to work together for the oncoming years.

"Thank you, Sasuke," she mumbled, only loud enough for him to hear, and not Naruto. She went back to staring at her feet and he leaned his head back again and ressumed listening to Kakashi and Tsunade's discussion.

* * *

"I don't know if it's wise to send Sakura Haruno on an A-Ranked mission, Kakashi, no matter the protection she'd be given by the three of you. Do you think you'd have the time to watch over her while you're fighting someone else?" Tsunade's words of wisdoms were replied to with a nod from Kakashi, but he still didn't give up trying to revision her mind.

"I know Sakura isn't as skilled as Naruto or Sasuke, but I think it's because she hasn't seen the world for what it really is. Sasuke saw his family murdered by his brother, and Naruto has the demon fox alienating him from regular humans. I think taking her on an A-ranked mission will force her to take her training more seriously in the future."

"I guess you have a point." Tsuande mumbled, close to being defeated. She remembered how her talent in medical ninjutsu went through the roof after failing to save Dan. "Still, it seems risky."

"Everything is risky." Kakashi pointed out.

"What about..." Tsunade pressed her hand to her chin in thought for a moment, "what about transferring her into a new squad permenantly, one where she's evenly matched in talent with her other members."

Kakashi grimanced at the idea. "I don't think that's a good idea. She's already a member of this team. Inviting a new girl in will disrupt the familiarity we already have." He didn't know why the policy for Genin teams was always two shinobi and one kunoichi, but it was tradition, and an unbreakable one at that. Tsuande had originally planned on substituting Sakura with a girl named Ten-ten, a taijutsu genin who trained under Gai. No one on Team Seven even knew who that was, so Kakashi had immediately refused.

"I guess..." Tsunade rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat. "Whatever, do what you will, but if that girl comes back mortally injured or dead, YOU are going to have to face the concequences. Either demotion or my fist ripping out your vocal cords."

Kakashi smiled, raising his hands defensively. "Don't worry about her, she'll be back with the rest of us." He bowed himself out of the room and left as quietly as he had come. In the hallway, he saw Sakura nervously figeting her fingers, Sasuke looked like he was sleeping, and Naruto was ready to jump. The second he saw Kakashi exit the office, he was bombarding him with questions.

"Is Sakura going to stay on the squad, is she coming with us?" He was bouncing on his toes.

Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. "Don't worry about it, Naruto. She's coming with us." He looked at Sakura to see her reaction, but her bangs were hiding her expression. Judging by the way she was positioned and the way she hung her head, she didn't seem too happy about the decision. "Listen," he said to Naruto and Sasuke, "the two of you go get ready to leave, I need to talk to her privately."

Naruto semed unsure, but Sasuke stood instantly and started to leave. Naruto followed him eventually, giving Sakura an apprehensive look as he passed her. When the two of them were both gone from sight, Kakashi stepped over and got down so he was eye-level with her. She stopped swaying her feet so she wouldn't kick him, and met his gaze reluctantly.

"How can you possibly fight to keep me on this team when you know I don't do anything but slow you down?" Her sudden emotional sleeve and vulnerability was even making Kakashi feel nervous. "I'm not level with you guys, Kakashi, you can't keep sticking up for me!"

Acting somewhat like a father, Kakashi took Sakura's hands between his and squeezed them slightly. "Sakura, I don't think you understand your position in this squad." She looked like she was about to cry and he didn't really feel like wiping away her tears, it would be too touchy to go that far. Instead he patted her shoulder and said; "don't cry, you don't need to cry. Listen, Genin squads are partly formed to instigate a feeling of trust between the members. It's a concept every shinobi needs to learn. For instance," Kakashi put a hand to his chest, "you know I would never let anything bad happen to any of you if I could help it, right?"

She nodded, pulling a hand away to wipe away a tear at the corner of her eye.

"But here is where the real learning comes to hand; I don't trust Sasuke with my life." Sakura gave him an incredulous look, raising her brows as far as they could go. He chuckled at her reaction. " If I were on a two-man mission with Sasuke, and I was in danger, I know he wouldn't lift a finger if he knew it was putting himself in danger, me and him don't have a bond like the the three of you have."

"Are you saying you only keep me on the squad because you trust me?" Sakura said, understanding just a little.

"You are our original female member," he said with an invisible smile, "I don't think any of us could handle having you replaced."

She nodded, smiling to herself, however, she still seemed troubld. "But I'm not-"

He held his hand up, cutting her off. "That's the next reason I refuse to let you get replaced. Sakura you're nowhere near the skill level of Naruto or Sasuke, this is true; but you can reach it. You need to start taking this life more seriously, and that's why you need to be brought on this mission. It's going to be dangerous, and it's going to be over your head, but just remember that you have the three of us watching your back."

They had her back. That sounded nice to her.

Before Kakashi could walk away to go home and pack, Sakura stopped him to ask one more question. "You said that genin squads are meant to teach us about trust, right?"

"That's right." Kakashi told her.

"Then..." She searched for the right words. "Can I trust Sasuke and Naruto?"

"Naruto, yes." He frowned beneath the mask. "Sasuke is a complicated issue, and I can't tell you whether or not you can trust him."

"But you don't trust him," she reminded him.

"No, I don't." And without another word, he turned on his heel and left her standing alone in thought.

* * *

Sakura's conversation with Kakashi had given her a whole new perspective on the team. For instance, did anyone on the squad trust her? She could easily say she could trust Naruto and Kakashi, but he had been right; If she was in severe danger, and Sasuke could help it, would he? She would dive head on to save his life if she knew she could do something about it, but if she knew he wasn't willing to do the same, she didn't feel so inclined anymore to show him the same courtesy.

On the way to Mist they traveled in a boat guided by a man from the mainland, and sometimes Sakura would catch herself trailing her fingers across the surface of the water, watching her reflextion warp and become indistinguishable in the ripples. Sometimes she'd start a conversation with Naruto because the journey was so long and she was bored as hell. Often, however, they were told to remain silent by Kakashi, who thought they didn't need to be on guard, but they should at least avoid bringing attention to themselves.

Finally, they reached the village and hid underneath a small bridge that hung over a stream to prepare for their mission. They started tying on fraudulent Rock protectors so the locals wouldn't recognize them as Konoha shinobi. Kakashi reluctantly placed an ebony contact to hide his sharingan and unfolded his forehead protector so it was instead a bandana to cover his distinguishable hair. A lot of shinobi wore the mask look, but he had to ditch his regular vest and replace it with one they had stolen from a rock shinobi on the mainland. Sasuke didn't need contacts because he could naturally suppress his sharingan, but he was forced to replace his blue t-shirt with that of a younger jounin's undershirt. Sakura took the fleeting moment to oggle his bare chest until he had covered it back up again.

Naruto did nothing but remove his jacket, tossing it to the side with the other clothes they were going to hide underneath the bridge, and Sakura stole away behind a rock to remove her dress and replace it with a conservative green tank top that she had in her closet, devoid of any Haruno insignia. She had also remembered to wear her white slacks instead of the black biker shorts so she wouldn't feel so exposed.

Kakashi stepped back and analyzed them, making sure there was no hint of them being Konoh ninja. He made a few touches; telling Sakura to tie her long hair back, forcing Naruto to wear his protector as a bandana instead of a headband, and then making sure Sasuke didn't have any other symbols hidden anywhere. When he was satisfied, they entered the village casually with their fake rock IDs.

The guard at the gate gave them a skeptical look. "What's your buisness here?" He asked.

"Visiting family." Kakashi said smoothly. "I'm Obito, these are my nephew's," he gestured to Sasuke and Naruto, "and my niece." He pointed to Sakura.

"You're rock shinobi." The guard stated dumbly. "You have family in Mist?"

"Transfers." Kakashi said with an easy-going smile under his mask.

The guard wasn't convinced yet, so he turned to the Genin, pointing them out individually, asking their names and looking at their ID at the same time. To Sakura; "You name?"

"Ino."

To Sasuke; "Your name?"

"Shisui." One of his old relatives.

To Naruto;" "Your name?"

"Minato." Naruto said with a scowl. Sakura wasn't sure where he or Kakashi had gotten their fake names from, but she figured it didn't matter. The guard let them pass, but was still hesitant as they shuffled past and into the village. It resembled Konoha, only with less enthusiasm and more crime. Sakura could have sworn she was felt up five times total while they walked through the crowd.

When they reached a deserted lot behind a small shop, Kakashi handed out their headsets, because they were going to split up and look for their targets. As they fumbled with the devices and tested them, Kakashi gave out reminders. "When you find the enemy, don't engaged, call for us and we'll attack as a team." His gaze drifted to Sakura, who was adjusting the volume of her headset. Her fingers shook and she was visibly nervous.

They took off their protectors and either pocketed them or tied them around their waists beneath their shirts. Four rock shinobi with headsets wandering around the mist village seperately would seem way to suspicious. "Keep out of sight," Kakashi told them, before they got ready to run off in different directions, "one guard already knows we're here, and if he sees us, he'll get suspicious." With a grin beneath his mask, he patted Sakura on the head and said jokingly; "we probably should have dyed your hair."

* * *

They were separated for hours, searching the massive village for any sign of their targets, talking softly now and then into their headsets to check up on each other. About every twenty minutes, Sakura would hear someone ask if everyone was still alright, still in one piece, still alive. Sometimes she'd hear Naruto or Sasuke think they may have found one of the two ninja, but then claim it as a false alarm. Sakura didn't even get that close, nor did she think she would, because she was currently spying on a crowded area with a special and easy-to-learn technique kakashi had taught them on the boat ride there. With a simple hand sign she could zoom in on her vision from far away, like having invisible binoculars.

She didn't expect to find two class-A shinobi of the mist hanging around a plaza with a bunch of teenage girls, but she was forced to check every area she came across.

Sighing audiably, she undid her technique and sat back on the rock she was resting upon. As soon as she felt like she was able to take a break, however, a voice cracked through her ear. "We're all tired, Sakura, but keep searching for now."

It was Kakashi's voice, and she was suddenly very embaressed. Searching around, she couldn't find him anywhere where he might see her, but she figured she was too out in the open where she was anyway. Quickly, Sakura jumped down from the boulder and landed in a small clearing, no trees around, but plenty of tall grass. She started to stretch and crack her sore body, and the humidity of the village was making her very hot. Searching for something she could wipe her forehead with, all she came across was her Konoha protector shoved in her pocket. She pulled it out and swiped it across her skin; and when she looked back up, she saw something in the distance. Something worth looking at closer. She made her hand seal and focused her eyes on a hill of boulders that were the result of a landslide, seeing two familiar faces staring back at her.

One of them was pointing at her, and Sakura felt her blood go cold. The larger, older, and more muscular one glared, infuriated, and it was then she became concious of what she was holding in her hand; A Konoha forehead protector.

Konoha, plus a headset, plus an unfamiliar face...

Terrified, she started to fun as fast as she could through the grass. They'd catch up with her quickly, so she had to speak even faster than they could move.

"Kakashi!" She breathed, clicking her device on, "I saw both of them, and they saw me, and they know I'm from Konoha."

The voice that replied was quick and urgent. "What is your position?" Great, Sakura thought, I'm out in the open with flashy pink hair and he can't see me, that must mean he's nowhere around.

"I'm near the landslide, running west away from it." She told him. It was the best description she could come up with. "I think-"

She heard the whistle-like sound of metal slicing through the air behind her and then a sharp sting as something sharp cut the flesh of her ear and shattered the headset in the process. She was forced to stop running as a large figure appeared before her, a figure that belonged to Zabuza Momochi. Without thinking, she turned and ran the opposite direction, only to be caught by a male the same size as her, but with a grip that could crush a rock. Although he wore a mask, it was obvious that this boy was the False Hunter-Nin Haku.

With strength she had never expirienced, she was spun around to face Zabuza, warm blood trailing down her neck and soiling her shirt. The criminal got right in her face and narrowed his eyes.

"Who are you?"

She didn't say anything. She wouldn't, and she couldn't.

He violently grabbed her hair and pulled. "Who _are_ you?!" he repeated.

Sakura, out of spite, spit in his face and he became furious. He punched her hard enough in the face that she blacked out for a moment, but not long enough to be unconcious. It was the first time she had ever expirienced anything that painful, and the only thing that came close were the punches she and Ino had traded during one of their spars. She thought those had hurt, but it was nothing compared to this. He had cracked some of her teeth, and blood from her gums welled up in her mouth. There was enough for her to have to spit it out or else she'd feel sick swallowing it all. She ran her tongue along the slippery wound and counted how many teeth she had lost; four.

Once again, he grabbed her by the hair and made her face him. "I don't like asassains, but you sure aren't one, blacking out from a punch. Even Kunoichi's can handle that, but you...what are you, a genin?" Sakura's glare made him grin beneath the cloth hiding his face. "Konoha sends a genin kunoichi after me and Haku?"

He let her go, straightening up, but Haku kept his grip on her arms. Inwardly, Sakura was screaming for help, for one of her team members to come and rescue her. How far was Kakashi? Hadn't he seen her on the boulder not even two minutes ago?

Then she understood. He hadn't seen her. He hadn't even been around. He had heard her sigh into the headset as she was sitting down on the rock and assumed she was getting tired. He could be on the other side of the village for all she knew. She might not have enough time to wait for them to save her. But she couldn't fight these two, they were way out of her league.

She'd have to escape.

Running from them wouldn't be hard, right?

"I'm going to kill you, little kunoichi," Zabuza said, pulling out a kunai and slamming the enormous blade of his sword into the soft earth, "because Konoha needs to know I'm worth more than this." He was about to thrust the kunai deep into her heart, but instead, as his hand was coming down upon her, she kicked her legs up so the blade dug into her left kneecap. Taking his bewildered moment as an advatage, she used her uninjured right leg to kick of his chest, making Haku let go of her in surprise. He stumbled back, and she forced herself to endure the pain, running full force into the field and using chakra to speed herself up. If she could just make it long enough until her team got there, they would stand a chance.

The whistling sounded behind her again, only this tme she knew it was more than one needle going for her. She spun around, refusing to get hit from behind while running away, and saw, not weapons, but somebody's back.

Sasuke's back.

There was a sickening sound and a groan, as Sasuke fell down on one knee and Sakura stared at him, speechless. Then she heard more blades cutting through the air and before she could dodge them herself, someone tackled her to the ground and they slammed into the earth with gasps heard from both of them. She flailed around wildly and saw Naruto grinning at her, but also looking her over urgently.

"You're not hurt, are you?" He asked quickly, grabbing hold of her shoulders and aparently not yet seeing her knee, which was oozing blood. In the distance she heard the sound of metal crashing against metal, and when she looked she saw Kakashi fighting both of the ninja at the same time, and becoming overwhelmed very quickly. Then she saw Sasuke, sitting up and grinding his teeth in pain. He had three kunai jabbed in his chest, but they weren't deep.

"Oh my God!" She squeaked, rushing to his side and shaking her hands, debating whether or not she should touch them or leave them.

Sasuke pushed her away, "don't worry about it." He said wincing in pain as he pulled each one out and then grabbed gauzes from his holster. "Naruto, go help Kakashi!" The blonde nodded and leapt away, leaving Sasuke and Sakura alone. She watched as he wrapped himself up, and the sight made her feel guilty.

"I'm sorry..." She said quietly.

His dark eyes met her hers for a moment and then he sighed, unable to remain frustrated. "You did good." He stood to join in the fight with the others, and Sakura was following his lead. He stopped her, however, and told her to remain hidden. "You can't fight with that knee." He explained, gesturing to her wound, and then ran onward.

It was true, now that she had the time to notice her injury. It stung like a mother fucker and running on it hadn't been the best idea, though it had been the only. In a way though, she was grateful for it. It was then she discovered two new things about herself; her will to live was strong, and her ability to endure pain was stronger. She wanted to join the three of her teammates in the fight against Zabuza and Haku, but she knew she would only get in the way, so she hung back, and watched the fight closely in the mist, waiting maybe for an opportunity to throw a kunai or something. Sasuke told her she had did good; but she wished she could have done great.

* * *


	5. Chapter Five: Present Time

**The Third Member**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

Present Time

* * *

Hidan didn't seem to fond of wearing clothes. From what Sakura could see, he only wore slacks because he was forced to, and he only wore shoes because they were protective. He wore no shirt, unashamed, and toted his sythe against his shoulders. He wasn't out of shape, but he defiantly wasn't as muscular as the other members she had met. He was slim, kind of scrawny, with destinguishable tone and several scars. The only other characteristic about him she thought was interesting was the tiny medallion he wore around his neck. The symbol was unfamiliar to her, and at the same time she could have sworn she had seen it somewhere before.

As they walked in silence, side-by-side through the dank forest on the outskirts of Pain's village, she continued to give the small piece of jeawlery interested glances when she was sure he wasn't paying attention. Nevertheless, her curiosity quickly became to much, and she questioned him about it.

"What's that symbol around your neck mean?" She inquired. The sound of her voice seemed to startle him, because his blue eyes flashed to her quickly, as if he had forgotten she was there. There was an instant where he merely stared at her, confused, and then his free hand drifted to the medallion thoughtfully.

"It represents my religion." He told her sharply.

"What's your religion?"

He scowled. "Someone like you wouldn't appreciate it's worth."

Sakura looked offended, and her mouth hung open slightly. After a second of having nothing to say in return, her expressioned morphed into one of vexation. "I can appreciate anyone's beliefs, I'm not going to degrade them."

"Forget about it, girly." He said sternly, walking faster.

She sped up too, throwing herself in his path and forcing him to stop abruptly. His eyes narrowed, but she pointed a finger at him accusingly. "I have a name, you know," she snapped, "it's Sakura."

"Fine, Sakura-" Hidan grabbed one of the sturdy straps to her tank top and shoved her to the side. "-Get the fuck out of my way."

Sakura glowered at him, infuriated. What had she done to recieve this behavior from him? Temper rising and common sense leaving her, she grabbed a rock from the ground and, using every ounce of strength she had, threw it so brutally at his head she could have sworn it had went straight through. Blood stained his white hair and she clasped her hands over her mouth to muffle her shocked scream. Had she killed him? Had she knocked him out? Why wasn't he on the ground in pain?

Hidan turned on her, fury burning in his eyes. Sakura stared at him in disbelief, thinking for a moment that she had murdered her Akatsuki partner within the first few minutes of their initial mission. Instead, she saw before her an enraged individual, grabbing her by the hair while she was too dumbfounded to resist and getting right in her face. "Jashinism is the worship of Jashin, our mighty lord. We believe in the slaughter of our enemies, and anything less than that is heresy." He released Sakura, who stumbled back and continued to stare at him. He spit blood from his mouth and wiped it away clean from his lips with the back of his hand. While he tore the jagged rock from the back of his skull, he didn't enjoy the fascinated look she gave him. "You look as if you've never seen this."

"I haven"t..." she breathed.

He sneered, throwing the rock into the forest angrily. How dare she forget him, how dare she allow him to witness that look on her face more than once. How dare she become his alley, when she was really his adversary.

* * *

Although Hidan was immortal, he was not inhuman. He couldn't get sick, and he could never mentally die, but he could still get injured, and even though injuries to him felt like orgasms, they could still do physical harm to his body. Before, when he was still paired with kakuzu, he could easily get stitched up in less than three seconds, but this little brat he was forced to endure the company of was too slow.

He sat in silence, his Scythe on the ground before him, his head lowered as Sakura mended his wound with her ninjutsu. The sensation of her chakra in his head wasn't undesirable, but to him he felt violated, like having your murderer bang your little sister. As hard as he tried, he couldn't tolerate the fact that he was being forced to collaborate as nicely as he could with a girl he had eternally labeled his antagonist. Eventually Pain would have to seperate them, because he wasn't uncultured about Jashinism. The fucking leader must have known how difficult it was for Hidan to put up with her.

"I'm sorry I did this to you." She atoned, pulling her hands away from his skull to signal she had finished.

"I've had worse." Hidan muttered, "did I ever tell you someone once cut off my head?"

Her eyes bulged a little. "Um..." she stammered, "no."

"Well now I've told you." He looked to the aphotic sky, his cerulean eyes blinking to rid themselves of the dryness he had accumulated from staring at the ground for so long. The stars were blacked by the clouds, and the moon was a dim lamp in the sky. "We should get going. If we move through the night we can catch up on lost time and make it to Grass by tomorrow morning so we can finish this fucking mission by nightfall."

Sakura rose a brow and put a hand to her hip after she had straightened herself up off her knees. "Grass?"

He stared at her for a moment, still crouched on the ground with his scythe in hand. He had to keep reminding himself that she was entirely rebooted, and that she was as dumb as a rock. Strong, but completely devoid of any basic knowledge. Itachi had shaved off enough to be safe, but in doing so he left holes in her intellegence. She knew what shinobi, kunoichi, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and all that jazz was, but she didn't know what any of the villages were, or any of the nations they were located in. He straightened himself out (she was actually not that much shorter than him, only a few inches) and pressed his fingers to his forehead.

"Alright, so there are a bunch of these great fucking nations, and in all these great fucking nations there are stupid fucking villages hidden in crap." She stared at him, perplexed, so he continued, "for example, the village you don't seem so keen on, Konoha, is the village hidden in the leaves. That's one of the bigger ones, along with Pain's village, the one hidden in the rain, the village hidden in the mist, and the village hidden in the sand." He placed both hands on his hips and scowled at the sky. "There are some pretty fucking stupid ones, though, like my village. The one hidden in the stream. But it's not a village anymore."

Moving on through the forest path, Sakura was able to walk the same pace as him easily, seeing as how they had almost the same leg length. "What do you mean it's not a village?"

"Well," he rolled his eyes, "it's still a fucking _village, _it's just not a shinobi village anymore."

She was about to say something else, probably another question, but then quickly turned her head to face left of her, through an untrailed part of the forest. Hidan continued walking, mumbling profanities under his breath, but he didn't seem to notice what she had. "Hidan..." she whispered. He didn't even hear her, and she once more heard voices a brief distance away from them. They sounded very alert, and they were walking too carefully for her to hear any footsteps. In a panic, Sakura twisted toward her partner urgently. "Hidan!" She made sure not to say his name too loud.

"Fucking wha-" As he turned, she nearly pounced on him, clasping his mouth shut and forcing him to duck behind a large bush hidden between two trees. He struggled at first, against her strength uselessly, thinking he was being attacked, before two men emerged out of the forest where she had expected them too, treading carefully and making no noise.

Sakura removed her hand from Hidan's mouth as they watched the two men cautiously. They had their weapons drawn, one had two kunai and the other had a large shurikan. One of them turned their head, searching the forest for some sign of life, and the duo saw clearly the Suna insignia printed on the metal band of his protector. Sakura rose a brow and looked at Hidan questioningly. He scowled, and then pulled up a handfull of dirt to try and explain where they were from. She didn't recognize their symbols either, and because they couldn't speak, his charade probably meant nothing to her.

"I know I heard something," one of the men whispered.

"Well, maybe it was just someone passing by, we're too close to the village anyways." His partner seemed keen on going back into the cover of the forest, and staying off the main roads.

"Maybe it was somebody we should go after? Konoha is after Akatsuki too, you know."

Sakura jerked with a start, forgetting they were supposed to be hiding. "Konoha?" She breathed. Hidan all but crushed her as he entwined his arms around her head tightly and shoved her back into the ground, covering her mouth and forcing her to remain inert. The two Sand shinobi spun around wildly, searching for the source of her voice. Sakura was deadly quiet, not even moaning for air when she wasn't recieving any. She heard someone whispering, thinking it was their seekers, until she recognized the voice as that of the man currently holding her head hostage. With bewildered green eyes she stared at him as best she could from her position. He was whispering phrases in a language she didn't know, and his blue eyes were closed gently. His fingers were making strange movements in the air before her eyes, and when she analyzed them more closely, he was drawing invisible copies of the symbol draped around his neck.

Finally, after a few short seconds, he released her and jumped through the greenery at the enemy, his scythe ready to strike. The two shinobi, obviously sub-par and unexpirienced, were too shocked to do anything, and at the same time, so was Sakura. He managed to engage one in battle, but the other spotted her quickly. Pink hair and breasts to him must have meant weakness, but she recalled her own fuzzy expirences in battle.

She leapt from the bush as Hidan did, unsheathing her katana in mid air and striking the blade of his kunai when she landed. He grunted as he tried to push her back, but her strength was beyond his in an unfair amount. She easily bore him as far back as he could go, and with one hand, grabbed a kunai from her holster and gutted him in the stomach. He gnashed together his teeth in agony, and blood trailed down his chin repulsively. She twisted the blade in his abdomen and he let out a scream, releasing his hold on his kunai and allowing her to do what she wished to him. However, she took mercy and only sliced his throat once, ending his life instantly. He hadn't been much of a fight, and she kind of wanted to keep going, now that the adrenaline burned through her veins.

There was a scream behind her and she spun around, afraid she would see Hidan hurt or something. However, the scream didn't belong to him, but to his opponet, who stared in grief at the slash across his arm. It was very deep and Sakura could even see the bone.

It was at that moment that she saw Hidan for what he really was.

Looking over at her foul-mouthed partner, she saw his red tongue slide across the blade of his scythe were his enemy's blood was spattered. She was nauseated, but then her disgusted look turned to one of awe as Hidan's skin started to fade into an inky black, and white markings resembling that of bones were located on several parts of his exposed body. The sight was mystical, and she wondered what exactly this man was.

He tore something off the handle of his scythe, a smaller slate blade with no handle. He, despite her feeble and soundless attempt to stop him, drove the tip into his hand and winced, but the grimace was soon followed by a torpid smile. Blood oozed from his hand and dripped on the ground below him. The fascinating scene was taking so long, the shinobi he had struck attempted to escape while he was preoccupied, but Sakura cut him off and siezed him by curling her arms beneath his and clasping her hands behind his head, putting him in a nasty headlock. He was luckily just the same height as her.

"Let me go!" He cried, but she slammed her knee into the small of his back, evoking him to seize up with pain.

Hidan started to laugh a maniacal, high laugh, and when she forced herself to look at him again, she saw a red diagram drawn beneath his feet. It was the same symbol as the one around his neck; the same as the one he had drawn in the air as they were hiding in the bushes

Hidan was giving Sakura the creeps.

"Hold him nice and still..." he crooned, licking his black lips. Slowly, as if to purposely create more tension, Hidan raised the blade high above his head, and then let it fall down to his abdomen, where it made a foul sound and peirced his flesh like it were tissue paper. Sakura stared in utter disbelief that he would do something to himself like that; and exactly one second later, she had to release the shinobi she held captive as he screamed an ear-splitting shriek. Blood sprayed her like a geyser as it leached from his body in the identical location Hidan had stabbed himself in.

She put two and two together very quickly.

He performed it three more times, thrusting the blade into himself like a lunatic. From what she saw, as he finally ceased his stabbing and the shinobi fell to the ground, dead after the third strike, was that he was in immense pain for a few moments, and then the same, weak, and relaxed smile crawled across his strangely colored face.

He was _enjoying_ this, she thought unfathomably, what the _fuck_?

Overwhelmed with pleasure, he fell to his knees, still grasping the blade in his stomach tightly, as if afraid to pull it out. His breathing was quick and uneven, and he, quite bluntly, looked like he had just had the greatest night of sex he could ever have.

"Hidan..." she breathed, staring at him and then at her blood-soaked body. "I think you should pull that thing out." She didn't know what else to say.

He groaned, tilting his head back and clentching his teeth together. Slowly, his eyes met hers. "I can't pull it out yet..." he wheezed, "if you're gonna be my fucking partner you'll have to get used to what I do when I kill."

* * *

They reached Grass, like Hidan had predicted, by the next morning, and he seemed to give Sakura the space she needed while they traveled. He refused to bring up any conversations or drag them out for unecessary length, and he walked ahead of her by at least a meter. At that precise moment, she was utterly terrified of him, and that made Hidan feel great. Witnessing him go crazy like that during one of his fights was rare, but it had been the first kill he had completed in possibly the last few months, and the pain had felt so satisfying he didn't want to stop at one stab.

As they got nearer to their destination, the forest got less dense and soon they were in a field of tall, lush verdure. Sakura, behind him, was slowly gaining the courage to lessen their proximity, and eventually started to talk to him again.

"So...how old are you, anyways?" She was unexpectedly timid around him now.

"I'm twenty-two." He replied without looking at her.

"Really?" She asked, skeptical.

He glared angrily. "Yes, really, are you calling me a fucking liar?"

"I'm just saying-" she started to whack him with her black bandana ruthlessly, infuriated, "-THAT YOU'RE A CRAZY MOTHER FUCKER WHO JUST STABBED HIMSELF FIVE TIMES!" Her temper was too much for him to have so close and he shoved her back before she did anything stupid. Sakura didn't take the nudge too well and pushed him back too, and to her satisfation, her shove was much more effective.

"Hey, what the fuck are you getting so angry about?!" He shouted, getting right in her face.

She jabbed her finger into his chest accusingly, "you could have at least warned me that you get all masochistic when you fight someone!"

Hidan dropped his scythe in the grass and grabbed her wrist tightly, preventing her from continuing to poke him. "Listen, bitch, that's not exactly something you can get warned about. You have to witness it first!"

Sakura ripped her hand from his grip and clentched her fists by her sides. "Witness?" She snapped. "WITNESS?! You scared the living shit out of me! How hard would it have been to just say, I dunno, 'hey, just to let you know I'm an immortal freak who goes a little nuts-" she twirled both her index fingers around her temples and crossed her eyes briefly to emphasize her statement, "-when I lick the blood off my scythe!' And what is with that scythe anyways, are you supposed to be the grim reaper or something, beause you're ugly enough for the role!"

Hidan opened his mouth quickly to reply, but then hesitated, as if just hearing her. He quickly got back on track, however, pointing his finger angrily. "Who the fuck are you calling ugly?! This scythe is symbolic!"

"For what?!" She snapped.

"For my faith!" He retored.

"Oh, yeah, your faith in who, that Jashin dude? Who the fuck is Jashin?!"

He was trembling now with anger, his hands shaking at the sides of his head, ready to pull out his hair. "You're such a fucking heretic!" He spat, "if Pain hadn't forced me to partner up with you and tolerate this bullshit, you'd be a dead little cunt!"

"Great!" She snapped, grabbing her bandana from where it fell and storming off into the village. "Maybe when we get back you'll complain about it some more and I'll get paired up with someone whose a little less of a FREAK!"

"Just to let you know in Akatsuki there IS NO SUCH THING AS LESS OF A FREAK!" Hidan grabbed his Scythe as well, almost ready to slam it into her pretty little skull. He forced himself to remain calm however, and refused to let her get the best of him. He quickly uttered a prayer for Jashin, asking for forgiveness because he couldn't kill the pink-haired bitch he was forced to be with at the moment.

Sakura was in so much of a rage she saw a rock sticking halfway through the soil and kicked it. It dislodged, much bigger than she had thought it was, and went flying through the grass, crashing in a small ditch along the way. She stood there for a moment, feeling better now that she had taken her anger out on something. With a deep, calming breath she reached up and retied her bandana, tucking in the pink locks and smoothing down the fabric. Sakura turned back towards Hidan, who was moping in the grass, glaring at the ground and mumbling to himself.

He's right, she considered to herself, I'm making too big of a deal about this.

Rolling her eyes, she walked back over to him, making a new trail in the high grass as she stomped the blades into the ground. When she was close enough she placed her hands on her hips and focused on a very uninteresting flower. "Alright," she sighed, "I'm sorry I keep getting angry at you. I'm just a little freaked out."

He looked at her from over his shoulder. "Lets just finish this stupid mission and get back to Pain so we can swap or something."

She nodded, in complete agreement. The sooner they found this Haku the better. However..."Wait," she said quickly, before he started to walk towards the village again, "Listen, if you do end up doing what you did again...could you, I dunno, be a little less sadistic about it?"

He sneered. "I'll do my best, toots."

* * *

Haku was easy to find, because he carelessly wandered around his allied village without fear while he did his buisness in Grass. He was a lanky, skinny male about the same age as Sakura, with long brown hair and a white, elaboratly painted mask hiding his face. Hidan and Sakura, although uncomfortable, transformed themselves into regular-looking shinobi, to avoid attention and recognition. Pain had already informed them sternly he didn't want anyone to know that Akatsuki had had anything to do with the assasaination.

Conciously, Sakura glared at the arm hair and beard she had been blessed with, transforming into the face of the man she had recently killed alongside her partner. Hidan did the same, and they wore Mist Chunnin uniforms rather than Sand. She kept her katana looking the way it was, but Hidan had to disguise his scythe as a bo staff, and continued to carry it upon his shoulder as if it weighed more than himself. She wondered how heavy the scythe was normally.

Haku, their target, was speaking to a Grass shinobi when they spotted him in the market plaza. He was holding something small and wrapped, and it looked like a scroll. The man he was speaking too unraveled the parchment and gazed upon it with curious eyes.

Hidan scoffed. "That's the village spy, Haika. He and Haku trade war messages between the Kage's of their villages."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Does that mean Haku is the Mist spy?"

"Yup." Hidan squeezed his grip on his transformed scythe eagerly. "We need to wait for this shit head to get out of public, probably when he leaves the village."

"When is he leaving?"

"How the Hell would I know?" He snapped, pushing past her to resume walking descretely. Sakura gave him the finger, but followed anyways. She wasn't used to the height of her transformed body, so she must have looked like an idiot as she took long strides, and then small ones to keep Hidan's constant man he had killed so viciously was actually a head taller than her's, so she had to look down at him when they spoke. The whole sudden change was a little awkward.

There was a throat cleared behind her, and she inquisitively looked over her shoulder to see who had done so. It was Haika, much to her horror, staring at her intently and with cold eyes.

"Um, hello?" Sakura asked, her voice deep and manly. Hidan turned as well, and froze when he saw the sight before him.

Haika glowered at her. "I'd like to see your IDs." He held out his hand expectedly. "Security is tight these days."

Hidan tried to save them; "man, we already showed our fucking IDs to the guard at the gate." Lie. "So piss off."

Sakura squeezed her fist to her forehead, embaressed for him. What a stupid thing to say when being questioned by your target's allaby. Haika grabbed her wrist, pulling her away from Hidan and looking her straight in the eyes. "All visiting shinobi are reporeted to me immediately, so-" He used his middle and index finger to jab her in a painful pressure point in her neck, one that was a major chakra-enabler. Loosing control, she was forced to release the jutsu placed upon her, revealing her true image.

Haku, not yet giving her attention, made sure Hidan stayed where he was. He already knew they weren't who they said they were, so Hidan grinned and gave up without a fight, releasing his technique and presenting his shirtless, scarred self. Haku narrowed his eyes behind his mask. "Akatsuki." Hidan wiggled his fingers tauntingly, showing off his membership ring. Haku, worried, turned to look at Sakura, he had seen pink hair, most defiantly, but he only remembered one member of Akatsuki being female and she had dark blue locks.

Then, he froze.

Inwardly, he counted back the years. He counted eight. The uniquely colored hair, the furious green eyes, the picture-perfect skin. He had seen this girl before, and he remembered her vividly. She had bee the weak member of the team that had killed Zabuza eight years prior to then. Completely aghast, he stared at her, bemused. He had heard her team had been assasinated by the very organization of Akatsuki, yet here he saw her; one of them.

Haika, kunai raised, was about to slit the throat of Sakura, but Haku stopped him, grasping his wrist and turning his back on Hidan. She gave him an urgent glance, but the Jashinist merely winked. Passerbys were starting to gain interest in the conflict, but no other shinobi or authorities were around other than the two spies.

"What are you doing, Haku?" Haika asked, not angry, but bewildered.

"I know her..." Haku said quietly, staring at Sakura and then slowly bending his back forward slightly to face her equally. "What are you doing, still alive?" He asked. His voice was high, like a girls, but still had the familiar masculine tone.

"Who're you?" She whispered, confused.

"He's a dead man." There was a click in the air and they both turned their attention over at Hidan, whose scythe had been revealed and the length was enough to prode Haku in the back of the head. With a malicious grin, he raised it with one hand, ready to strike. The triplet blades sliced through the air with a whine, and time slowed down, as if on que. Sakura, not wanting to kill someone who obviously recognized her from somewhere, tried to stop the scythe from striking, but was pulled back by Haika, who threw her away brutally from the duo and forced her to fight him defensively.

As the scythe sliced the body of Haku in two, the people of the crowd started to scream, running frantically to escape the plaza. Hidan looked at his blades, dissapointed, his stillness exagerated in the animitity of the swarming citizens. Instead of blood dripping from the red surface, it was water, and the body of his victim exploded into liquid as the wound settled. Just a clone.

He turned around to find the real one standing amongst the fading crowd, facing him, and ready to fight fairly. Before they begand, however, Haku gave one last glance at the engaged kunoichi.

"Is her memory gone?" The boy asked.

"Unfortunately." Hidan answered indifferently, twirling his weapon around by it's hilt, making whistling sounds through the damp air. "Do you know her?"

"Vaugely." Haku said truthfully. Hidan glared, killing him would be high priority now that he was an allaby to the newest addition to Akatsuki. As swift as they were, the two of them bounded, Hidan going up and Haku going forward. In midair the slim masochist threw his body foreward, doing a flip in the air and crushing his blade down upon Haku, who dodged it with quick ease and silently aimed a senbon at Hidan's neck. The needle pierced, but did nothing.

Haku rolled out of the way of Hidan's next attack, and once more sent a needle into the vital points of his body; this time his heart, puncturing his vena cava. Hidan merely grinned another disturbing smile and tore both needles from his body, thorwing them onto the ground.

Haku stared. "Impossible..."

Hidan twirled, the tip of the hilt placed in his fist so the scythe extended it's full length. Haku used a kunai from his holster to block the first blade, feeling his grip loosen on the tiny blade and watching it go cartwheeling through the air, but as the triple-bladed beast came round again, He was defenseless.

Meanwhile, as the two battled in the now-empty plaza, Sakura and the Grass spy, Haika, we're partaking in something much more violent. It almost looked as if they were dancing, as they punched, kicked, and switched from offensive to defensive. The two were both close-range fighters, so they had abandoned all hope of ninjutsu and relied solely on taijutsu. It was fine for Sakura, because she preffered the feeling of a good punch. She had already been hit twice, once on the side of her mouth where a gap in her teeth was located; missing four teeth that luckily could not be seen unless she opened her mouth as wide as it could go, and once on her cheek bone, bruising and causing a nose bleed she had no time to tend to.

Their footwork was almost matched perfectly, slowly bringing the two of them further and further away from their enemies. When Haika took a step backwards, Sakura took a step forward, thrusting her fist towards him, and then a foot, almost always being rebounded. The spy was notoriously good for his ability to dodge, but up close he could only manage to repell.

Seeing an opening, Haika kicked away one of Sakura's feet and then grabbed her by the neck, his large hands crushing tightly and then accompaning it with his other hand. He squeezed so firmly he was surprised blood didn't spurt from her eyes, although she did flail around wildly, clawing at his hands and trying to get air.

Haika grinned, thinking he had her, until he felt something hard cut through his neck, fracturing his spine. He released his grip on the girl and she turned to ash between his fingers, flowing away into the wind. He gripped the back of his head reflexively, feeling warm blood trickling down his back and the katana blade still lodged in his spinal cord. He was dead in seconds, sputtering blood and coughing the entire way down to the ground.

Sakura sneered. For a spy he wasn't very good at telling when someone was a clone or not.

She pulled the katana from Haika's neck with a gross sound and slipped it back into her sheath. As she turned to see how Hidan was doing in his fight against Haku, she saw the white-haired creep already drawing the Jashinist Symbol in the stone that made up the plaza lot. She panicked, hoping to have a word with the boy before they killed him; and he was now on the ground, leaning up and nursing his bloody face. As she ran forward at full speed, she saw clearly the slash that went from his forehead to his chin. The sight was disturbing.

Hidan finished the circle before she could reach them, so she desperately called to him to wait. "Stop!" She yelled, running faster. She saw Hidan's blue eyes glance at her, but he didn't stop, he raised his scythe, dislocating the seperate blade from the hilt. The sleek, black weapon was held tightly in his hand, and then, once again, was thrust into his heart. Sakura wasn't unnerved by the sight nearly as much as she had been before, but maybe it was because he hadn't gon't sadistic, and instead limited it to just one clean jab in the chest.

That mean Haku was dead.

Sakura finally made it to their side of the plaza, but of course she was too late. Haku's body lay still and lifeless across the ground, and Hidan was clearly enjoying the agony he was going through. She skidded to a halt next to him and grabbed his blade, pulling it out as roughly as she could, vindictively. He stared at her, furious. "What the fuck?!"

She threw it to the side where it clatered onto the stone, and glared at him. "He knew me!"

"So?" Hidan stepped out of the circle slowly and picked his scythe up from where he had dropped it to the ground. As he made to get his tossed blade, Sakura blocked his way.

"He could have told me something useful about myself!" She yelled, exasperated. "Maybe where I was from!"

Hidan, clearly not enjoying her mood swings, grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and shook her a little. "Listen, cupcake, I'm not going to prolongue the death of someone I'm supposed to kill just because you think they may know your birth date." He pushed her aside and grabbed the extra peice of his scythe, snapping it back into place and quickly ushering her to get out of the village while they still had time to escape.

* * *

**A/N: See my livejournal for any furture author notes. The link is in my profile. :)**


	6. Chapter Six: Present Time

**The Third Member**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

Present Time

* * *

Itachi had never spoken to Hidan, not personally, unless it was the occasional exchange of information every once and awhile, or the rare times they were assigned on a group mission together. They generally just ignored each other, Itachi being too busy with his own affairs, and Hidan being too preoccupied with his religion. Although the two individuals never went ot of their ways to get accainted, Itachi knew that he and his partner, Kisame, were always talking to each other. It seemed like Kisame had relations with almost all the members of their organization, even Konan. He was a friendly person, but also very strange.

Either way, the Uchiha never showed much interest in Hidan, seeing as how his abilities were of no use to him to learn, and that the majority of the members he had spoken with claimed that the Jashinist was a pain in the ass. He never paid much mind to the recurring feelings until now, as he overheard Hidan and Pain's feud in the main chamber.

Quietly, Itachi leaned his back against the wall besides the chamber door, where he could conveniently hear every word they were saying, considering they were using raised voices, which was out of the ordinary when it came to Pain.

"I can't fucking work with her and you know it!"

"There are no other openings she can be placed in." There was a scraping sound, most likely a chair being pushed back against the concrete surface, and Itachi imagined Pain raising himself from his seat so he could face Hidan with his full height. That was what made the Jashinist so less menecing, his five-foot-five elevation from the floor. Itachi had seen him compared next to Sakura, he had only been an inch or two taller. The only other member shorter than him was Tobi, who happened to be the same height as Sakura, as well as another neuisence.

"Christ, can't I just exchange her for someone else? Lemme work with Kisame or something!"

"No, Kisame and Itachi have worked together for far too long, their teammwork has been perfected."

There was a drawn out silence, and Itachi could all but see Hidan pulling his ashen hair in frustration.

"What about Tobi? Either Tobi or Zetsu would be better than her!" The Jashinist was starting to get desperate. Nobody would volunteer to work with the annoying kid in the mask unless they were either being blackmailed, or they had head issues.

Pain sighed, exasperated. "Tobi is a nuisence, he just got in after Kakuzu died, and he refused to work with you because of your temper. And Zetsu is a loner, he will not accept a partner."

"Why can't I be a loner, then?" Hidan whined.

"Because you need someone to look after you so you don't do careless things."

The masochist's desperation was now turning into irritation, and it was easily heard in the mannor of his breathing. Every idea he had was being shot down by Pain, and it was pissing him off. "I'm not getting rid of her, am I?"

"You're stuck with her, for now." Pain stated mercilessly.

From where Itachi was standing, he hadn't heard Hidan's steps toward the door. After Pain had finally nullified anything he could have used to get rid of his partner, Hidan abjured and left the chamber in such a fury that when he reached the door he kicked it open instead of using the handle, almost flattening Itachi to the wall if he hadn't of blocked it with his fist instead. The door shattered off the hinges and fell to the ground with a violent and loud thud.

Hidan glared at the Uchiha. "Eaves dropping?"

"Yes." Itachi said with his monotone voice.

The immortal glared, clearly not in the mood to argue with anyone else. In a rage, he stormed off, either to his chamber or even to leave the village for a breather. Not that Itachi really cared. Casually, as if he had done nothing wrong by listening to the conversations of others, he entered the main Chamber to find Pain looking over a piece of perfectly folded paper very intently. On his raised wrist was a dignified raven, their courier.

"Deidara sent this. He said his birds are too recognizable and are being targeted. He's in Cloud right now, he says the war is becoming increasingly agressive in the west." He explained softly to his subordinate, without looking up. "It's going to get far worse before it finally collapses."

"Konoha still stands strong," Itachi reminded him.

"Konoha has always stood strong." Pain crumpled the manuscript in his fist and chucked it at Itachi, who caught it with a soft sound. "Burn that, will you?"

The uchiha squeezed the wad of paper and flame engulfed it from his palm. The ashes fell to the floor like snow and made a tiny pile at his feet. "What do you plan to do with Sakura and Hidan?" Itachi asked, "their ability to cooperate with each other will fail as time passes."

"Time." Pain gently stroked the feathers of his raven, who still sat perched on his wrist with a kingly stance. "Sakura won't be with us long, so Hidan doesn't have to worry. In the meantime..." Pain finally turned to look at Itachi, and his expression was cold and hard, as always. "Why is it that Kisame and you are still here? This isn't a hide out for Akatsuki."

"You let Sakura and Hidan reside here."

"I want to keep them under my surveilence."

"So do I." Itachi and his leader stared at each other for a long time, trying to find meaning in their traded words. Finally Pain narrowed his odd eyes and glared.

"The technique you've placed on Sakura can break, can't it?" He asked.

Itachi nodded his head slightly. "No techniuqe will ever be perfect, but I can assure you that it's as strong as it could be."

"If it's strong, then why do you feel the need to watch over her?" His interrogating questions were starting to annoy Itachi, but he wasn't allowed to deny Pain his answers.

"It's just for precaution." Itachi said, trying to sound firm, instead he just sounded bored.

Pain gave up and turned from the Uchiha, walking towards the perch where his raven usually remained. He let the bird remove itself from his wrist and turn it's inky back on both of the shinobi in the room. "Whatever, just don't get comfortable, I didn't set this place up so you all could use it as a hotel."

* * *

Itachi wandered the asylum for an hour or two after his conversation with Pain. He explored certain areas he'd never noticed before, but remembered to be careful and never move or disturb anything. He found a small room, more like a closet, that was filled only with weapons, and it took him awhile, as he looked them all over, that they were the expensive show weapons that Sakura had thrown out the balcony when they had fought in the main chamber. One of Pain's little followeres must have collected them and returned them for him.

Gently, his index finger ran a trail down the smooth blade of a butterfly sword. The weapons around him were in much better condition than his aging kunai and shurikan, but at the same time, they weren't nearly as sturdy.

"Itachi?"

He looked up, and saw his partner towering in the narrow doorway. Kisame was in casual clothes, just a black t-shirt and black slacks. He was barefoot and had no forehead protector on.

"I was just exploring." Itachi said quietly, only a hint of defensiveness showing in his tone, and removed his hand from the butterfly sword.

"I was just wondering, Itachi," Kisame seemed reluctant to continue what he was going to say, but his partner stared him down, his morbid way of saying he was curious. "How is your eyesight lately?"

Itachi's dark eyes narrowed. He wasn't one to enjoy discussing his eyesight, not even to the one person he spent all his time with. It was a sensitive subject he wasn't too fond of elaborating on. "It's fine." He said curtly, trying to prevent the subject from evolving, but Kisame wasn't as big as a pushover as he once was.

"I know you have more pride than Pain, but if you think about it, we have the best medic in the world on our side, and she could probably fix your vision if you asked her politely." While speaking, he casually crossed his toned, blue arms and leaned against the doorway. "While she's with us you might as well milk her for all she's worth."

"My sharingan cannot be healed by a medic, we've already tried."

"Yeah, but this is Sakura Haruno, we're talking about. She'd probably be number one in the bingo books if she had exposed herslef more to the world, and she was taught by Tsuande, don't forget that."

Itachi rolled his eyes, irriated, but not enough so his parter was able to see. "Alright, I'll talk to her about it."

Kisame seemed taken aback for a short moment when Itachi's tone got a little angry, instead of the usual monotone drawl. But before he had time to elaborate on it, the Uchiha gracefully and slowly, so not to seem flustered, pushed past him and walked away from the tiny storage room. If he was going to speak to Sakura or not, Kisame wouldn't have been able to tell, the man was so reserved, it was almost impossible to tell what emotion he was expressing.

* * *

There was a furious rapping at Sakura's oakwood door. Ever since she and Hidan had returned from their mission, she had been moved into a slightly more comfortable setting rather than the tiny chamber she had had beforehand. Where she was now was the size of a regular bedroom, but there was no bed, only a couch that was graced with a feather pillow and a black comforter. Her ceiling was so low if she reached her arm up while standing she wouldn't have been able to lock her elbow by the time she touched the chalky ceiling with her fingertips. Her floor was covered with a dark green rug that was actually very plesant to walk on, and she enjoyed running her bare toes through the rough fabric while she was relaxing. Other than her couch she had a dresser, which was bare save for her normal attire and a pair of casual clothes. On the tiny table next to her futon was all her weapons and scrolls, but her katana was mounted against the fram of her door.

By the manner of their knocking, Sakura knew exactly who her visitor was. She ripped open her door to see her white-haired partner glaring down at her from his two-inch height advantage.

"What do you want?" Sakura snapped.

Hidan sneered. "I'm just letting you know we're still partnered up and it's not going to change." Sakura ground her teeth together in frustration, hoping to have heard better news than that. While her grip on the door tightened, he continued, enraged. "So, get used to this chest, girly-" Hidan gestured to his bare torso tauntingly, "-You'll be seeing a lot more of it."

He huffed and stormed away from her door, leaving her with a hot face. Before he had the chance to get out of earshot she screamed; "your chest looks like an over-sized condom you jackass!"

She slamed the door, rattling the hinges and clentching her fists as hard as she could while she settled down. Hidan made her furious, whether it be because of his attitude toward her, or his inability to be permemently phased by her temper, his mere pressence was enough to send her off the deep end. While she took deep breaths, a second tap on her door echoed in her small room and she tore it open once again.

"WHA-" She froze, flushing with bewilderment and embaressment. Itachi stood before her now, looking down at her with interested eyes. "Oh..." she whispered nervously, coughing away the rasp in her voice. "Um, sorry, I thought you were Hidan."

Itachi, once again, pushed past her uninvited, and entered her room as if it were his own. She still didn't mind, like she should have, but the act was getting a bit annoying, though she refused to say anything about it.

"You and Hidan don't seem to get along well." He noted obviously.

She rolled her eyes and put her index finger to her chin, "are you familiar working with him?"

Itachi, his back turned to her, stared morbidly at the brick wall of her chamber. "I've had a mission with him before."

"What was that like?"

"Unenjoyable."

Sakura scrunched up her face, giving the back of his head an analytical look. "That's an unexagerated word."

Itachi chuckled, impressed with her sincerity, and turned to face her more politely. He noticed, now that she wasn't in full uniform and merely in her tank-top and shorts, that she wore Kakuzu's ring around her neck, rather than her designated finger. She must have saw him looking, because her hand drifted to her neck thoughtfully, playing with the silver chain that bound the significant ring to her chest. "I know I wasn't supposed to wear it like this, but my hands are to sensitive to chance wearing a ring.

The Uchiha cocked a brow, asking her to continue soundlessly. She smiled and stretched her hands out before her, as if to let him see them more clearly, but really she just did it so she could see them flexed and presented in front of her. Her hands weren't dainty or smooth, but scarred and rough. They still had their feminine shape, but they were often sore and bruised. "I have a strong power to rival anyone else's strength. If I challeneged Kisame to a natural arm wrestle, I'm sure I'd win." She snickered at the thought. "But if I wear any jeawlery while I'm in action, I'd break the ring and probably injure my knuckles or something."

"That's an understandable reason to wear it as a necklace." Itachi and her shared a short, awkward silence before she started to fidget.

Finally, she asked, "was there something you wanted?"

He bent his head as if to nod, but didn't finish it. Calmly he asked, "are you familiar with the structure of the human eye?"

She placed her hands on her hips and bit her lip curiously. "Very."

"What about bloodlines?"

"I can recal some medical expiriences healing something called the byakugan."

Itachi's eyes snapped open and her eyed her supiciously. "Can you remember something like that so clearly?"

She frowned. "I can vividly remember memories of certain skills, but I can't remember the names of people, places, details, or anything else like that." She waved the topic aside and brought up the previous one. "Did you need help with a bloodline or something?"

He looked to the ceiling as if he was exasperated, but in fact he was just ashamed to be asking for help for something he knew couldn't be fixed. "I have a bloodline called the sharingan, and it's located in my iris." He looked back down at her and blinked, and when his eye lids fluttered back open, he was gazing at her with dark red eyes. She stared, fascinated, so he continued. "They are strong, but they weaken my eyes. I no longer have twenty-twenty vision like I did when I was younger."

"Oh..." she mumbled to herself, still marveling at the ghoulish beauty of his spooky eyes. "You want me to see if I can fix anything?"

"If you wouldn't mind." Itachi said, blinking again so his eyes were back to obsidian black.

She nodded, touching her chin thoughtfully, but then gave him a stern look with her peircing green eyes. "I have a condition, though."

He kept the same, detached expression, but somehow me managaed to intervene curiosity into it. "You do?"

"Yes, if you want me to help, which I assure you, you won't regret, you have to continue to try and release the amnesia that's on me."

He frowned, not enjoying the inevitable desire she was having to reclaim her former life, one that didn't involve the two of them having such a friendly conversation with each other, but rather one that would see them clawing at each other's throats. Either way, if this was her condition, he could easily fake his attempt to help.

"That is a good trade." He agreed.

Her smile was bright, and out of place in the dark chamber in which she was residing. "Good, but could I..." her hands drifted away from her sides slightly, as if she were restraining herself from grabbing a hold of him, "...um, check out your eyes?"

He smiled, very slightly, and barely enough to even be considered a true smile, and moved closer so he could stretch out his hand and close the oak door behind her. It shut with a soft click, and Sakura told him to sit down on her bed. When he did so, she was able to look down at him, rather than look up.

"Tilt your head back." She instructed, holding the back of his neck to steady him, not that it was necessary, but to her it felt like it was probably a habit. "And can you activate your...whatchamacallit..."

"Sharingan." He reminded her.

"That's right..." He obeyed, blinking for a third time and reopening his eyes to reveal an intricate eye design Sakura thought was even more interesting seen up close. She carefully pulled back his eye lids so she could see them more clearly, but her actions visibly made him flinch. She frowned apologetically, assuming he wasn't the type who would allow anyone to get that close to him. If she was an enemy to him, she could thrust her thumb into his sockets before he even knew what hit him. She pushed a little of her chakra into his eyes and explored the eyes. She defiantly felt things that didn't belong, impurities and abnormal structures, but some of them seemed fine and pulsating, as if they were required charateristics passed down from generation after generation of sharingan users in order for the human body to actually accept the supernatural iris structure. But in all her exploring of Itachi's eyes, she did discover what it was that was making his vision fade so drastically.

She let him go and pulled out a small piece of paper from a notebook on her desk, sketching the bloodline as she had seen it and also drawing a diaphram of the normal human eye. Whe she finished, she held it up to him so he could see it as well. "Do you see this?" She asked, pointing to a section of the normal eye. When he nodded, she continued, "these are bundles of optic nerves that send signals from the eye to the back of the brain."

She then pointed towards her drawing of the sharingan, as well as the diagram to accomany it. The tip of her finger rested on a very dark and narrow shaft, in the same spot where the optic nerves from the previous diagram should have been. "These are your optic nerves," Sakura informed him, "they are currently decaying."

Itachi stared at it for a short time, and then his red eyes drifted slowly up to meet hers. "Can you do anything?"

She sighed, "only if you let me in on all the secrets of the sharingan, how it works, how it functions, and how you feel when you're using it. And if I know it well enough, I'll be able to rebuild your optic nerve structures so you won't go blind. But..." She rose a pink brow at him expectantly, "you still have to meet your end of the deal."

"Of course." He said politely.

"Um..." this was the part in which she felt a little awkward around him. "Did you want to do this now, or later?"

It was devestatingly quiet for a moment, before either of them made any move or attempt to break the tension. But Itachi answered after analyzing her throughly. "You won't have any recollection of me being inside your mind."

She closed her eyes thoughtfully. "I know."

"The sharingan is a powerful weapon, and it's not meant for things like these, so if you expirience anything unnatural when I release you, I can't be held accountable."

"Will I go through that ordeal like before? When my senses were off the chain?"

He nodded. "The mangekyou sharingan is much more intimate to it's victims, and it can mess with your nerve system easily."

There was a pause, and then Sakura squeezed her fists. "I'm ready."

She met his eyes agin, and saw that his eyes were no longer the sharingan she had seen before, but a new design had inked it's way through his bloody iris. She was once again facisnated, but her enthusiasm didn't last long as the dark marks within the mangekyou started to spiral, and she was sent into a deep, relaxing coma.

* * *

Being inside someone's mind was a strange expirience. You yourself feel more like you were under the heavy influence of marajuanna, when your skin tingled and you felt lighter than air, but Itachi could still see and think clearly. And the data stored naturally within their brain wasn't a clear picture, it was fuzzy, more like an endless array of every color ever seen by the human eyes, and then the colors that could not be seen by the human eyes. Itachi had seen these marvelous enigmas before, but since they had no name, and were not created from the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow, he had no way of describing them to anyone. Seeing the universal colors was his own, private privilige, but often he would desire to share their perpetual beauty with someone else. Most preferably, Deidara, who would look at art as an entirely different concept if her were to witness what the subconcious mind actually looked like.

While Sakura was unconcious, he could hear the sounds of her dreams, and soon they started to take shape. "Have you ever wondered what life would have been like if we weren't shinobi?" The voice belonged to Sakura.

"Not really, no..." Itachi was surprised, and not surprised at the same time, to hear his younger brother speaking. He hadn't heard his voice since the last time they had met, and also the last time Sasuke had ever drawn breath. His tone was indifferent, but at the same time thoughtful.

"I was just wondering, after what happened between me and Zabuza, maybe I'm not cut out for being a kunoichi." All around him, Itachi started to see things solidify. Before him, he saw a much, much younger Sakura speaking to his little brother on the Konoha bridge at night. The sky was dark, and grey, and cloudy, but you could see the moon behind the darkness. Although it may have seemed romantic, two standing on the bridge in the moonlight, the scene didn't look like it at all. Sakura's expression was emotional, and cold, her eyes downcast and she was purposly putting distance between herself and her teammate.

Sasuke, who looked morbid and even a little sad, gave her a grim look, and leaned over the side of the bridge. "I just think you need to find your priorities, Sakura."

Itachi rose a brow, not really understanding why Sakura was wiping away a few tears silently, or why Sasuke seemed like he was about to crush the bridge rail between his fingers. He wondered if this was a memory or just some fantasizing dream. Sakura turned her face from the youngest uchiha as she sniff and dried her face with the back of her palm. "I don't know what any of my priorities are..."

Sasuke finally looked at her, his eyes cold and icy. "Try and think clearly." He instructed sternly. "Do you want to live your life chasing me when you know in your heart I'd never be able to return your feelings. Even if I did say yes to you, my heart is set on killing my brother, and until that deed is completed, I can't be intimate with anyone, not even you." He took a deep breath and smiled gently. "Or..." he said softly, "do you want to live your life alongside me, not as my girlfriend, but as my teammember? Do you want to be known as just Sakura, or the prodigy among other prodigies?"

Itachi all but rolled his eyes at the repulsive scene. He waved his hand, sending the image back into the perpetual rainbow. He had made a mistake, entering her mind while she was unconcious, all he would see now were her dreams. He guessed in the future he would just knock the girl out with the sharingan, and upon awakening, he would tell her he had had no luck. She would never have luck, either. That life she had was dead and gone.

* * *

**A/N:** Blagh. Sorry for the delay. Chapter sucks. Will do better on next!


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